As more excerpts get released from the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, the venal and sociopathic side of Trump keeps getting laid out more clearly – not that it’s a surprise to many, but as the phrase goes, sunshine is the best disinfectant.
However, to me, the worst revelations are not those of Trump – since, as I said, we know who he is – but rather about all the Republican officials who are so aghast at Trump or who make fun of him…and did nothing about it. Worse, who normalized him, supported him and enabled him. Stories of Paul Ryan so mortified by hearing of chaos in the Trump White House that his response was, “Oh, my God, Jesus.” Mitch McConnell so mortified by Trump that he stopped talking to him. Trump's own CIA Director Gina Haspel so mortified by him that she said “We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum." That at a meeting after the election with VP Mike Pence, Republicans wouldn’t even mention Trump. Republicans in the Congressional cloakroom almost rolling their eyes in disbelief at Trump and joking about Rex Tillerson calling Trump a moron. And on and on and on. All of this in private, behind closed doors. And yet they did nothing. But worse than doing nothing, they gave Trump the support he needed and enabled him. And continue to. It’s certainly good to read had badly so many high-ranking Republicans felt about Trump behind the scenes, that they didn’t take his sociopathic insanity as a good thing. But thinking someone is crazy, out of control and fascist, and yet continuing to support him and enable him while going “tsk-tsk” and “Oh, my God, Jesus” is gut-curdling damning. It’s like showing your humanity by telling others how sickened you are that someone is massacring a crowd of innocents with an AK-47, while handing him more bullets -- because…well, at least he’s on our side. Senators Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee did their own study on whether there was fraudulent voting and determined that there was none, zero -- but did nothing. Instead, they kept it private. And enabled Trump to continue the Big Lie. Because they believed it would help the GOP Brand by undermining trust in Joe Biden's election. Which is one of the tenets of fascism. Republicans knew who Trump was. They knew how sick and awful and dangerous he was. They told each other and rolled their eyes about it in private. They could have stopped it every step of the way. And instead, they supported him and enabled it all. This is not about Trump, we know the pathological fascist he is. The is about the elected members of the Republican Party who enabled him. And became just as fascist.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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