Too many Americans have tried to replace the horrors of the Age of Trump with happy-pill halcyon tales suggesting that Donald Trump and his movement have been vanquished and made irrelevant by the hopeful possibilities of Joe Biden’s presidency, and an imminent return to some new form of “normal.”
Here are some uncomfortable truths. Continue reading.
The words spoken on the Senate floor over the past few days were almost innumerable. But the ones that stayed with me through the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump were among the very first ones uttered.
“Democracy needs a ground to stand upon — and that ground is the truth,” lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said in his opening statement, quoting his father, the political activist Marcus Raskin.
This Senate trial would not be a contest among lawyers, or between political parties, said the Maryland Democrat, who led the prosecuting team trying to make the case that the 45th president had incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Continue reading.
The first of this century’s national traumas is denoted by two numbers: 9/11. One purpose of, and a sufficient justification for, the second impeachment of the 45th president was to inscribe this century’s second trauma in the nation’s memory as: 1/6.
Although not nearly as tragic as 9/11 in lives lost and radiating policy consequences, 1/6 should become, as its implications percolate into the national consciousness, even more unsettling. Long before 9/11, Americans knew that foreign fanaticisms were perennial dangers. After 1/6, Americans know what their Constitution’s Framers knew: In any democracy, domestic fanaticisms always are, potentially, rank weeds that flourish when fertilized by persons who are as unscrupulous as they are prominent.
The Framers are, to the 45th president, mere rumors. They, however, knew him, as a type — a practitioner of what Alexander Hamilton (in Federalist 68) disdainfully called “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity.” Post-1/6 America has a quickened appreciation of how those “little arts,” when magnified by modern modes of mass communication as wielded by occupants of the swollen modern presidency, make civilization’s brittle crust crumble. Continue reading.
An Atlanta-area prosecutor plans to scrutinize a post-Election Day phone call between Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into whether former president Donald Trump or his allies broke Georgia laws while trying to reverse his defeat in the state, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe, said the inquiry by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will include an examination of the call Graham, a staunch Trump ally, made to Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election.
During their conversation, Graham asked the Georgia secretary of state whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties, Raffensperger told The Washington Post in an interview days later. He said Graham appeared to be asking him to improperly find a way to set aside legally cast ballots. Continue reading.
Graham, Lee, and Cruz aren’t just ignoring their impeachment oath, they’re flaunting their indifference to their responsibilities.
Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment proceedings is only a “trial” in a colloquial sense. Many Americans have some sense of how a case is tried in court, and this isn’t it.
Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), for example, is overseeing the proceedings, while also serving as a “juror.” He’s also, incidentally, a witness to the crime. In fact, in this case, each of the jurors are witnesses, which in a normal trial would never be permissible.
And because the usual rules and procedures of an American trial do not apply to the Senate’s impeachment proceedings, it stands to reason that there will be dramatic differences in how senators approach their responsibilities. But by any sensible measure, it’s tough to defend tactics like these. Continue reading.
The Republican Party is reportedly facing an exodus as thousands of America are dropping the political party affiliation from their voter registration. Back in January, The New York Times released a report highlight the alarmingly high number of voters who opted to change their registration. Now, the publication has published another editorial explaining why.
Since the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, more than 200,000 voters across several states have left the Republican Party. While shifts are normal after elections, the publication noted how distinctly different this one is.
Chuck Coughlin, a Republican Party strategist in the state of Arizona, explained why he believes the shift has occurred. “The exodus that’s happening right now, based on my instincts and all the people who are calling me out here, is that they’re leaving as a result of the acts of sedition that took place and the continued questioning of the Arizona vote,” Coughlin said. Continue reading.
We’re just over one month out from former President Donald Trump inciting a violent insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, and we’re still only beginning to understand the full extent of the damage wrought by the MAGA movement’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
There’s the immediate effect, of course: the death and destruction and political consequences to be faced (or not) by those responsible for the events of Jan. 6. And then there are the longer, more subtle ways the insurrection — and the broader environment that allowed the bigotry, proto-fascism, and ultra-nationalism therein to take root — has warped the American political landscape.
Take, for instance, the most overt eruption of political violence in the United States in decades — one that enjoys an astonishing amount of support from Republicans, who see the use of force as a legitimate means “to arrest the decline of the traditional American way of life.” While a new study from the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life found that only 36% of the general public agrees with the statement “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it” that number leapt to 55% among Republicans — a sign of just how prevalent the undercurrent of violence is in certain segments of the country. Continue reading.
Days before former president Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial began, more than 100 former GOP officials reportedly hopped on a Zoom call. The topic: how to best rally whatever anti-Trump momentum is left in the party.
The talk on Friday, which Reuters reported included former elected Republicans and officials from the past four GOP administrations, touched on whether to launch a new center-right party, said Evan McMullin, the former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference, who co-hosted the call.
“Some people at the summit strongly favor starting a new party,” McMullin, who ran as an independent presidential candidate in 2016, told The Washington Post on Wednesday. “They think the GOP is irredeemable. They understand how difficult it is to form a new party, but they understand that there is no other choice.” Continue reading.
Former President Trump declared victory on Saturday after Senate Republicans voted to acquit him for a second time, saying that his political movement “has only just begun” and that he would have more to share in the near future.
Trump thanked his legal team for “upholding justice and defending truth.”
“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” he said in the statement. Continue reading.
Sen. Lindsey-Graham (R-SC) got caught talking out of both sides of his mouth after leaving the impeachment trial on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters, Graham advocated for Capitol police to have shot the protesters and killed more of them.
“I just can’t believe that we could lose the Capitol like that. I got mad. I mean these police officers had every right to use deadly force, they should have used it,” he said.
But when he appeared on Fox News, Graham had a whole other take perfect for Hannity viewers where he blamed Democrats instead. Continue reading.
