There is nothing left. They don’t even hide anymore. The depravity did not start with the Capitol invasion, but the attempted coup d’état appears to have encouraged the extremist impetus of the far-right and silenced what was left of respect for constitutional democracy.
There is no traditional party in other democracies that resembles the Republican Party, founded in 1854, in its open support of the subversion of the electoral process and in its endorsement of violence as a legitimate resource to recapture or maintain power.
Invertebrate deputies and senators, who owe their lives to the heroism of Capitol Police officers who were beaten — and, in the case of one of them, died — at the hands of the invaders, leave no doubt about how they want to go down in history. On Friday, a Republican National Committee meeting in Utah condemned Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in political speech.” The two are the only Republicans sitting on the commission investigating January 6.
Kinzinger already withdrew from running for election in November and Cheney, the daughter of Dick, George W. Bush’s powerful vice president, is treated by fellow parties as a public enemy. At the same meeting, the Stalinists on the Republican Committee amended a rule on primaries with the specific aim of preventing the congresswoman from being re-elected by the state of Wyoming.
Thus, the January 6 attack was rewritten as a “legitimate political expression” by the party that approved, 20 years ago, the torture of suspected al Qaeda members. The declaration was not debated, but voted on by voice, in the best style of communist dictatorships of the 20th century. It seems that two solitary “no’s” were heard in the hall.
The congressional commission is not even remotely investigating political speech. It investigates the invaders who injured, depredated, ordered the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence and were seconds away from terrified congressmen and senators.
The US press on Tuesday gave a lot of attention to the carefully staged ad by Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attacking Utah’s declaration. “We were here,” he said. “It was a violent insurrection aimed at preventing the peaceful transfer of power.”
It is the same McConnell who voted against the process calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump for his responsibility in inciting the invasion of the Capitol; that he tried to sabotage the creation of the commission in which the two censured deputies participate; and who has already made it clear that he supports the former president if he is chosen the party’s candidate in 2024.
Utah’s statement also resonated with Republicans not aligned with Trump – who last week complained to his vice president for not stealing the election. Mike Pence is not a hero for having, for the first time since January 6, 2021, said that his former boss “is wrong”.
The Republican Party no longer has the right to be recognized as a political party. The shy indignant ones who protest with a thread of voice seem angry at Trump because he is getting in the way of their priorities: preventing minorities from voting and continuing to protect the rich.
