It was in the harrowing days following January 6th, 2021.\u00a0\u00a0The riot at the Capitol was over, the glass and paper and feces cleared from the floors and walls.\u00a0\u00a0Congress showed more determination that many thought possible, a bipartisan focus on getting the electoral votes certified and the election over.\u00a0\u00a0And Vice President Mike Pence, after four years of total fealty to every whim of President Trump; for the first time stood up and said \u201cno\u201d to rigging the electoral certification.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps being left in the basement of the Capitol for hours, hiding from the mob, without anyone in the White House even checking-in, sent a clear message.\u00a0\u00a0The gallows erected on the lawn was specifically meant for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we really didn\u2019t know what was going to happen next. Donald Trump remained in the White House, and there were still days before Joe Biden would take over. The fences and barriers surrounded the Capitol, the \u201cbarn door\u201d firmly closed after the horses were gone. The National Guard patrolled the streets, twenty thousand of them. There were more troops guarding Washington than any time since the Civil War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats were pressing for impeachment and removal of the President. It was publicly known that he already considered declaring a national emergency and seizing near-dictatorial powers. Disgraced General Mike Flynn wanted troops to seize voting machines and stop the transition of power. America held its collective breath for two weeks, waiting for the \u201cother shoe\u201d to drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there was so much more going on than we knew at the time.\u00a0\u00a0We didn\u2019t know that there were many Republican Congressmen and Senators complicit in the attempt to subvert the electoral certification.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t just the \u201ccrazies\u201d: Gomer and Gosar, Brooks, Biggs and Boebert, Green and Gaetz.\u00a0\u00a0There were \u201cserious\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Congressmen and Senators involved:\u00a0\u00a0Jim Jordan in the House, Cruz and Lee in the Senate, and many others who doing more than just \u201cgoing along\u201d with the mob besides fist waving Josh Hawley.\u00a0\u00a0They were taking their Ivy League law degrees to the extreme, creating \u201clegal\u201d rationales for overthrowing the election results, a real coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for some of them, things went too far. They didn\u2019t expect the rioters to \u201ctake\u201d the building. What was an \u201cacademic exercise\u201d on how to subvert the Constitution, was all of a sudden, a personal physical threat. They were running away down the halls from a mob who might do \u2013 anything. So most \u201cbailed\u201d, backing away from Eastman and Navarro\u2019s \u201cGreen Bay Sweep\u201d and voting to accept certification of Biden\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaker Pelosi and then-Minority Leader Schumer wanted to \u201csolve\u201d the problem by ending the Trump Presidency. They first thought the quickest way was to remove him from the remainder of his term by the 25th Amendment. But Pence wouldn\u2019t initiate the process, and besides, so many of the Cabinet secretaries were temporary appointments, undyingly loyal to Trump. It was unlikely they could muster the majority votes needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pelosi knew her only other option to protect the Constitution was to impeach Trump, again. If nothing else, it would keep his, and America\u2019s, attention focused on the process. While Trump broke the Founding Fathers\u2019 precedent of peaceful transition, he could hardly proceed to declare a national emergency while impeachment was in process. Even if it took longer than Trump would be in office, it could serve to prevent him from running for office again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that would require some Republican support. Democrats controlled the House, but the causal action of this impeachment appealed beyond partisan allegiance. Many Republicans in the House agreed that Trump should be removed. They looked to their leadership, particularly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for political cover. If McCarthy and the other Republican leaders acknowledged the need to remove Trump, then they could follow suit without great political risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if Mitch McConnell in the Senate supported impeachment, he would bring the needed Republican votes to remove the President, and more importantly, bar him from office for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We already know that for the first week after the Insurrection, McCarthy recognized Trump\u2019s culpability. He gave a speech on the floor of the House demanding that the President take responsibility for the Insurrection. And, we now know, that he privately discussed asking the President to resign. McCarthy even considered supporting impeachment. We know this, because last week we all heard McCarthy\u2019s own words, taped in a conversation with Liz Cheney, about what they could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, maybe, McConnell spoke the truth, once, on the floor of the Senate, immediately after the impeachment resolution failed. He acknowledged that Trump was culpable for the Insurrection. McConnell just didn\u2019t have the courage to do anything about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometime in the week after the Insurrection, McCarthy and McConnell and the other Republican Congressional leaders, made a purely political calculation. They determined to step back from their duties to the Constitution and the United States, and preserve their personal political power. McCarthy needed the \u201ccrazies\u201d to vote for him for Speaker. McConnell knew he risked his \u201cleader\u201d position, and perhaps would spend the rest of his career in the minority, if he stood against Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of that was more important than what would become of the country, should the bipartisan front they presented on the night of January 6th, divide into partisan bickering.\u00a0\u00a0So they sat back, and let the Democratic leadership take the \u201cheat\u201d for holding Trump responsible.\u00a0\u00a0And by doing that, they doomed our Nation to years of more division.\u00a0\u00a0They left Trump unaccountable, and eligible for re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelly Ann Conway\u2019s \u201calternative facts\u201d said \u201cout loud\u201d what was going on behind the scenes.\u00a0\u00a0There was no reason to accept \u201cfacts\u201d, when a different, more palatable reason was available.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAlternative facts\u201d begat the \u201cBig Lie\u201d, that the election was stolen.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cBig Lie\u201d begat the Insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0And when the Republican leadership failed to act after January 6th, they certified the \u201cBig Lie\u201d for millions of their party members.\u00a0\u00a0And if the \u201cBig Lie\u201d is true, then all of the lies about the Covid vaccines could be true as well.\u00a0\u00a0Hundreds of thousands of Americans died needlessly, because \u201calternative facts\u201d became \u201cthe truth\u201d for so many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s still happening. Ron DeSantis tells us that primary teachers are \u201cgrooming\u201d children to be gay, or trans, or for kiddy porn. Greg Abbott says that \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d is subverting American education. Josh Mandel says that illegal immigrants are taking \u201cAmerican\u201d jobs. None of that is true, but so many Americans are \u201cprimed\u201d to accept \u201calternative facts\u201d that they believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Republican leadership still in Congress, McConnell and McCarthy, had their opportunity to change the direction of America. They could have supported the Trump impeachment, taking him off of the political \u201cchess board\u201d forever. They could have acknowledged the truth. And we now know that they knew all about it at the time; knew removing Trump was the right thing to do. It was that absolute failure of political courage, their unwillingness to risk their own careers for the good of the Nation, that left us where we are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McConnell and McCarthy, and the others could have led us to do what was needed, and what was right.\u00a0They knew it at the time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, what should have been, wasn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"