Can Uncle Sam Hold the Line Against Mob Rule?

By DICK POLMAN

Let’s start with the good news, such as it was. The Senate tally to convict America’s top domestic terrorist was bipartisan, and six of the seven Republicans who found him guilty hailed from states that went red in 2020. All told, the 57 senators who voted guilty represent two-thirds of the nation’s population. And even though Trump was acquitted, he has been irrevocably disgraced – much like O.J. Simpson, another guy who skated but was forever soiled.

On the other hand (and I’m so sick of writing stuff like this), the Republican elephant met our expectations by stomping on constitutional democracy. Forty three traitors declared with their votes that MAGA mob rule suits them fine. If Trump were to personally pee on the grave of a dead Capitol cop, most Senate Republicans would laud him for watering the grass.

Then we have Mitch McConnell, the ultimate Kentucky fried chicken, who tried to have it both ways – letting Trump off, then furrowing his brow. With slippery Mitch, there’s always a hitch.

Did you catch his act Jan. 13? The postmortem speech he delivered right after the Republicans put the brass knuckles to Uncle Sam? What a piece of work that guy is. For awhile, I thought I was listening to House Impeachment Manager Jamie Raskin:

“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day … This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out. The unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence began.Whatever our ex-President claims he thought might happen that day, whatever reaction he says he meant to produce, by that afternoon, he was watching the same live television as the rest of the world. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name … But the President did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed…(a) disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

You just knew the “but” would come. And so it came.

The Senate, he said, “is not invited to act as the nation’s overarching moral tribunal.” Rather, he said, it is called upon to do its most dire constitutional duty only when a president is still in office. Which Trump is not. Actually, the reason why the Senate trial occurred after Trump left office was because McConnell, in early January, refused to make the Senate available while Trump was still in office. A salient fact that McConnell neglected to mention.

You don’t need a Ph.D. in political hypocrisy to recognize what McConnell was doing Feb. 13. He wanted to cover all his bases.

By acquitting Trump, by refusing to whip his Republican caucus for a guilty verdict grounded in the facts and the law, he played to the MAGA rabble, who still worship the lie that their demigod wuz robbed. And he gave Trump enough ammo to claim vindication.

But with the ’22 Senate midterms (and his own political future) firmly on his mind, he wanted to reassure longtime Republican donors, many of whom were appalled by the events of Jan. 6, that he too views Trump as an irredeemable dirtbag.

Many corporate donors have vowed not to write checks to the party of fascist insurrection, and some prominent conservatives have said the same – for instance, Ted Olson, who served as Solicitor General under George W. Bush. Olson said the other day: “(I) certainly do not plan to contribute financially to or support candidates or committees who do not pass the test of character presented by the Senate’s vote on the impeachment trial. This is about not only accountability of the former president, but every senator who votes either to condemn or condone the former president’s conduct. Each senator will have to live with his or her conscience relative to this vote and to answer to the American people about it.”

McConnell needs their big bucks for the ’22 races, so he sought to leave the impression that even though he voted to spring Trump on a technicality, he nevertheless is rooting (or seems to be rooting) for some form of prosecution: “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one … President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office. He didn’t get away with anything, yet.”

Perhaps that was a signal to Merrick Garland, the Attorney General who still awaits confirmation, inviting him to feast on Trump. This is the same Merrick Garland whose Supreme Court seat was stolen in 2016 by … Mitch McConnell. Is this dude a player, or what? If hypocrisy were a currency, McConnell would be richer than Bezos.

It would be presumptuous to offer a prognosis on the health of Uncle Sam, to hazard a guess on whether he’s strong enough to resist the mob-rule impulse unleashed by Trump and vetted by the McConnell crowd. But let’s try to circle back to my opening ray of sunshine. As time passes, the American majority’s condemnation of Trump will likely be cemented by new evidence of his seditious acts, and those in power who abetted or excused him, or twisted themselves into pretzels to have it both ways, will likely join him on the ash heap of history.

But only if we do the work to make it so.

As President Biden said Feb. 13, “This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended … And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com

From The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2021

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