Thank you Adam Kinzinger, for getting to the bottom line. This is the plain fact of the matter. It’s a tragedy that the obvious even has to be stated, but we are at a strange time in history, where one the two major political parties that allow the democratic process to exist in this country has crashed and burned.
As a Democrat, if you would have told me that the Republican party would one day split apart like the rotted husk that it is, I would have laughed. I would have said, “Oh, boy, I gotta see this,” and would have rubbed my hands together in glee.
No. That is not the case at all. Because the price tag of the Republican party going into the toilet is that democracy goes with it. We cannot have democracy in this nation without two functioning parties, with two viable — however different — platforms and a set of policies and goals that each party is dedicated to and is trying to achieve. That is how this system works.
We don’t have that in this country anymore. It became apparent in 2015 that something in the GOP had died. If the only common ground that party could find was the lowest common denominator in this country, the extremist fringes of the GOP, as exemplified by their 2016 candidate, then the GOP of yore was gone to all intents and purposes. What we knew before and called the GOP was no more. That was the message of 2016 and we said that loud and clear at that time. And we didn’t know one tenth of the nightmare that Donald Trump would bring. But we knew that much even at that point in the process, that the 2016 election was not democracy as usual.
Here’s Adam Kinzinger’s take on what happened with Trump this weekend.
“He could have overturned the election.” This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement. It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side… Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore. pic.twitter.com/Bp3dfn7cBe
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) January 31, 2022
If you didn’t read Trump’s complete idiotic statement yesterday when it was made, here it is:
Here is Liz Cheney’s take.
Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election.
He’d do it all again if given the chance.
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 31, 2022
Yes, he would. Cheney’s got it right. What I find singularly odd is that she knows this but she won’t vote for voting rights?
Here are a few others.
A notable, predictable moment in the Trump cycle of horribleness:
He waits for the GOP and conservative Inc to really flesh out their “It wasn’t really a coup, gotta move on” takes before he comes out and says, “It was definitely a coup, and I’m gonna do it again.”
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) January 31, 2022
Then there’s this.
Oh and I know: “But these things take time!” They don’t have to. Not this much. DOJ is amply capable of moving with lightning speed and has done so innumerable times on major, high-stakes cases. But not here.
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) January 31, 2022
That pretty much sums it up. This is where we are at this point. Trump is up against the gun legally and so he asked his supporters to riot in three cities last Saturday night. He asked for riots. So is that what is going to happen if Merrick Garland takes action? That’s the only interpretation I can reach out of this clip.
IMPORTANT: Watch carefully. He reads this entire rant directly off the teleprompter. He fully intended to threaten unrest if he is criminally charged. And others worked with him to deliver that message.
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) January 30, 2022
That, ladies and gentleman, is the standard bearer for the GOP, a man who wants to burn it all down. And once again, if you have heard one peep out of Republican leadership, i.e., Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, would you let the rest of us know? Their silence speaks volumes.
Note to Adam & Liz–they pretty much have chosen sides and they did not side with democracy, free & fair elections, etc.
So right Spike. Romney, Murkowski, and Chene all opted not to vote for free and fair elections even though they can’t stand TFG because they want to keep their seats. Why Kinzinger didn’t is baffling – he’s leaving at the end of his term anyway. The stupid part is that if the orange traitor does get reelected, their seats mean shite. He’s going to rule like a dictator and they won’t be able to stop him. What a bunch of shortsighted morons the R party has become!
Traitor tot did make one true statement, “our elections are corrupt”, because the R’s are busy trying corrupt them.
Great. Democracy goes in the shitter and we have to depend on Milquetoast Merrick Garland. Stick a fork in us, we’re done.
Go find out what the AG is responsible for. Hint: it isn’t individual trials. He’s the chief administrator.
All the ones who really want to be leaders seem to have chose the former guy.