As we all know, a whopping 93.36% of the House Republican caucus (197 out of the 211 members) voted against impeaching Trump. After the chamber they work had been assaulted by a murderous mob looking to assassinate Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi, among others. And after the President of the United States had been caught on tape soliciting the very (nonexistent) election fraud that he has been raging incessantly about since well before the election, thereby seeking to overthrow our duly democratically elected government and undermine our democracy. Even after having seen the lengths to which Republicans have gone over the last four years to enable and defend this pathetic, treasonous, ignorant pathological liar and international embarrassment, I have to admit it that I was still stunned that such a high percentage of Republicans still refused to hold a corrupt, deranged traitor accountable after the events of January 6.
In recent days we have heard — self-servingly and anonymously, of course — that at least some of those 197 really, really did want to vote to impeach the cowardly abomination staining the Oval Office. But they couldn’t do so, they said, because they feared for their lives and the lives of their families. Is this really true? Did they really receive such threats? At first glance, such excuses struck me as a remarkably convenient way of casting themselves in a better, more sympathetic light to the rest of us while not antagonizing the rabid Trump deadenders that comprise the heart of the GOP base these days. But then again, given the kind of people who we are associating with having made these alleged threats, there’s no denying that that cowardly behavior is right up their alley and thus very plausible. In any event, of course, if true, the threats are horrible, but the refusal to impeach a traitor remains unpatriotic at best and inexcusable. After all, if inciting a violent insurrection to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States isn’t worthy of impeachment, what in god’s name is? (Besides lying about a blow job, of course.)
I think the 197 who voted to continue to give Trump a pass fall into three general categories:
- The true believers and / or gratuitous sycophants (the Gohmerts, the Gaetzs, the Jordans, the Gosars, the Biggses, the Brookses of the world)
- Those whose primary concern in office is avoiding getting primaried, and who will say and do anything to fulfill that mission. The professional self-interest / ambition above everything else crowd, who I believe, makes up the majority of the 197.
- And of course, then there would be those who say they feared for their lives and the lives of their families.
Regardless of the reason for their vote though, every single one of them made a mockery of the policy that our government has championed for a long , long time — that we don't negotiate with terrorists. Period.
In essence, these 197 individuals voted to do just that. Give these terrorists exactly what they want. Appease them for now, until they come back looking for more.
Whatever their rationale for their votes, history will condemn those 197 for what they are: unpatriotic, sedition-adjacent cowards, and enablers of a traitor.