Shortly after the Capitol riots Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech before the Senate, “There is no question he (Trump) remains practically and morally responsible for the riots. There is no question, none, that Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting upon the wishes of their president, and having that belief was a foreseeable result of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president shouted into the largest megaphone on planet earth.” McConnell went on to say that the claim that the election was stolen is a “myth” and that since we know that Trump was watching the entire riot on TV, he is even more responsible because he did nothing to stop it.
A little later in a speech before the House of Representatives, House minority leader Mitch McConnel proclaimed, “Some say that the Capitol riots were caused by ANTIFA; there is absolutely no evidence to that, and conservatives should be the first to say so. But that doesn’t mean that the president is free from fault. The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately renounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These facts required immediate action by President Trump, (to) accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest, and ensure that President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”
Both McConnell and McCarthy apparently believed at the time that Trump’s political career was mortally wounded by the Capitol riots and they sought to finish the job and completely push him off the political stage, to rid themselves of the populist upstart and return Republican Party to its pre-Trump conservative agenda. They miscalculated. It turned out that Trump continued to enjoy the allegiance of a large majority of Republican voters. This was unwelcome news for Republicans like McConnell, McCarthy, and other establishment Republicans, but driven by the need to return to power, they quickly pivoted and decided to make a deal with the devil.
Trump was never one of them. For years they had been leading their Republican base around by the nose by giving lip service to their deeply rooted social agenda in order to get elected and reelected, and then once in power, they time and again voted against the best interests of their voters in order to benefit the rich and the corporations they own. Trump stole those voters away for them by playing to their worst fears and promising to champion in their battle against immigration, their perceived loss of status caused by people of color, and the “ungodly’ agenda of liberals that threaten to overwhelm them. Trump earned their loyalty once in office by continuing to cater to their worst instincts.
There are those Republican politicians such as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik, Marjorie Taylor Greene. etc. that are all in with Trump, hoping that his popularity with the Republican base will rub off on to them. They want to ultimately use his blessings to gain more political power. On the other hand, most of the Republican leaders in Congress fear Trump, not so much what he can do to them, but they are scared to death when they consider how he could so easily screw up the works as they try to regain control of both the House and the Senate in the 2022 mid-term elections. Hence the reason for their deal with the devil named Donald J. Trump.
That is why when he is asked about the big lie and Trump’s power within the Republican Party McConnell quickly pivots to talking about uniting the party and stopping Biden’s liberal agenda. He doesn’t want to talk about the fact that he no longer wants to talk about Trump’s responsibility for the Capitol riots. In a complete about-face, McCarthy ran off to Mar-a-Lago to kiss more than Trump’s ring. He is now totally aligned with Trump and that is why he is willing to throw a true conservative like Liz Chaney under the bus in favor of the former moderate Elise Stefanik who has prostituted herself by frequently repeating the big lie and figuratively kissing Trump’s butt time and time again.
McCarthy and most of his fellow house members don’t want to be continually and publicly reminded by Chaney that they are aiding and abetting Trump’s attack on our very democracy in order to keep him from running their chances of retaking control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and perhaps even endangering their own political careers.
They are all terrified that Trump will put together a slate of politicians who are loyal to him to challenge the party’s preferred congressional candidates in 2022. The resulting nasty Republican primary battles could easily result in the battered Republican surviving candidates losing to Democrats in their general elections races. Or worse, Trump could leave the Republican Party, start his own party, and put up his own slate of candidates to run in the general elections against both the Republican and Democratic primary winners. That would split the Republican vote resulting in disastrous results for the GOP in the 2022 elections. Either way, they know that if Trump feels alienated by the Republican establishment, the GOP’s chances of regaining the House, or even the Senate, would be slim and none.
Now, most of these folks involved with the deal with the devil have been in the political arena for a long time. They know full well that the election wasn’t stolen. They know that Trump lost handily. However, they are willing to set conscience aside in exchange for a chance to win back the House and the Senate. They also know that Trump is continually attacking the integrity of our election system and that if the people of this country lose faith in the results of our elections our democracy can’t work. Our system of government still depends on the concurrence of the governed.
Unlike Liz Chaney, who they wish would just shut up, they are willing to subvert their conscience to their quest for power. More objectionably, they are willing to subvert the very existence of our country’s democracy to their raw need for power above all else.
May they receive what they so justly deserve.
Cajun (Rick Guilbeau) 5/10/2021