Getting Poked in the Eye with a Rusty Nail

 So, yesterday, I wrote glowingly about Republican Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers who testified openly and honorably and impressively about his dealings with Trump and the pressures put on him to break the law, undermine the Constitution, as well as Trump publicly lying about him earlier that day – and having to face threats from angry mobs stirred up by Trump.
 
It was a lesson to me, and remarkably admirable.
 
And then later, after all that, Mr. Bowers said that if Trump runs again in 2024 against Joe Biden, he would vote for Trump.
 
Sigh.  Albeit with grinding teeth, clenched fists and stomach churning.
 
He says he likes what Trump did "before COVID."  Well, that’s just swell of him, but – y’know, what about during COVID? And after -- and what about during, say, the Insurrection?! 
 
Rusty Bowers saying he still supports Trump because he liked the job he did "before COVID" is like still supporting Harvey Weinstein because you liked his work producing movies "before he attacked women."
 
Or still supporting Saddam Hussein because you liked his leadership before the whole genocide thing. Or still supporting Bernie Madoff because you liked his investment advice before all that embezzlement stuff. Or that you still support Al Capone because you liked him before that fuss on St. Valentine's Day.
 
Years ago, I saw a 10-year-old kid interviewed after his team lost in the Little League World Series.  He said, “If it wasn’t for the fifth inning, we would have won.”  Well, yes, that was true.  Unfortunately there was a fifth inning.  It’s part of the game.  And it counts.  Just like Trump ignoring COVID counts, and suggesting you drink bleach and don’t wear masks counts.  And the whole, pesky Insurrection to overthrow democracy and the govern counts.  But Rusty Bowers is willing to ignore all that, throw it all out, just like the 10-year-old kid wanted to throw out the fifth inning.  There are two problems with this:  one, the 10-year-old kid knew you can’t throw out the fifth inning, and two, Rusty Bowers isn’t 10-years-old.
 
Never mind that Rusty Bowers thought Trump was great before COVID when he took children away from their parents and put them in cages, demeaned Mexican and Muslims (Asians came later, after COVID), massively increasing the national deficit and being impeached twice – once before COVID, once after.  But that’s a separate matter, that’s his opinion of what “great” is, and so be it.  But it’s all the “during COVD” and “after.”
 
Mr. Bowers also said he hasn't been watching the hearings. Well, there's an informed voter!  For a statehouse Speaker.  Me, if I knew I was going to testify under oath before a House committee on live television before the American public, I think I might want to have an idea what was going on.  And I’m not even the Speaker of the House of any state. 
 
And this from a man who gave absolutely great testimony, superb, noble.  A man who had written in his journal at the time of the pressure and attacks on him that “I don’t want to be a winner by cheating.”  Who spoke at length about how deep belief in God informed his life.  And how he believed the U.S. Constitution was “divinely inspired.”
 
Apparently believing in the "divine inspiration" of the Constitution only goes so far, when you’re okay voting for a man who tried to rip it to shreds.  Apparently, it’s part of your honor code to not want to be a winner by cheating – but you’re okay voting for someone who himself is desperately doing all he can to win by cheating.
 
But that's today's GOP.  Party over country.  Even if it means undermining the “divinely inspired” Constitution, lying, threatening mob violence and fascism.  Regardless of your own personal standards against all that.
 
And so another person testifying against Trump has said he'd still vote for him. First, Bill Barr -- and now (despite his very blunt testimony, being lied about and death threats), Rusty Bowers.
 
A friend of mine who grew up down the block tried to put it in a different perspective and reminded me that “some of our parents’ Republican friends admitted that they would have voted for Nixon again if they could.”
 
I wrote back that that was true.  However -- none of them testified under oath before the House of Representatives about how Nixon tried to pressure them to break the law and enabled mobs to threaten their own lives and lied in public about what they had said and staged a coup to overthrow the government.
 
Also, most of Nixon's crimes at the time were only widely known on the surface, not how deeply they went into undermining democracy, which only came to wider light later, in some cases much later.  Nixon’s crimes (to some Republicans) were that he lied to the public and was forced to resign, unfairly. That's far different from the perception of Trump's actions.  Even if they support everything he’s done, almost all of it is right there on the surface for all to see in the shining light of day.
 
And still, for all that with Nixon and some people saying they’d still vote for him if they could, the Republicans were crushed out of office in the next election in massive droves by the outraged public, including enough Republicans. There was a landslide in 1976 was Jimmy Carter won the presidency, and Democrats won big majorities in the House and Senate.  That's not the case now.
 
To be clear, a Republican still willing to vote for Nixon (if they could) or even today willing to vote for Trump is something I understand. I think it's ghastly, but I understand it. But this with Rusty Bowers (and Barr and other Republicans who literally know in detail all that went on, were threatened and have had to personally deal with it in a range of ways) is the point here and something separate.
 
That’s today’s Republican Party.  Where even the most admirable of witnesses willing to testify under oath about all the wrong that Trump did to overthrow democracy and the United States government and threaten your own life – is still okay with that.  And okay with fascism.

This is not about Trump.  This is about what the Republican Party is today.  Willing to
willing to close their eyes to attacks on democracy, the Constitution (even one "divinely inspired" as Powers said) and the rule of law, and enable racism, white supremacy, corruption, two impeachments, swindlers, 31,000+ documented lies and, ultimately, fascism.