The Trump-spawned hate that has been embraced by many rank-and-file Republicans is reaching a danger point and it's time to stand up and say, "Enough!"
Listen to this article and the previous one:
The latest example of this is a despicable letter sent to the wife of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL), one of two Republicans serving on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Here it is:
Presumably the person who sent this letter to Kinzinger's wife, Sofia, is a Christian. They say his "activities have hurt not only this country, but countless patriotic and God fearing families. Therefore, although it might take time, he will be executed."
Some Christian!
"The Darkness is spreading courtesy of cowardly leaders fearful of the truth," tweeted Kinzinger, one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the insurrection. "Is that what you @GOP? Pastors?"
“There is violence in the future, I’m going to tell you,” Kinzinger said on ABC’s “This Week” program. “And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently.”
Trump's continued baseless claims are behind such threats and the prediction of violence by Kinzinger. But it's not just individual lunatics like the person who sent the Congressman's wife that letter who are involved. It's the GOP itself.
In Texas, Republicans at their convention adopted a resolution declaring that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. "We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States," the resolution says.
That action was taken despite the mounting evidence being presented by the January 6 committee that Trump incited the mob that attacked the capitol, even though his closest advisors were telling him his claims of election fraud were baseless, and in the words of Trump's own attorney general, William P. Barr, "bullshit."
The Washington Post reported last week that more than 100 GOP primary winners back Trump's false fraud claims.
"About a third of the way through the 2022 primaries, voters have nominated scores of Republican candidates for state and federal office who say the 2020 election was rigged, according to a new analysis by The Washington Post," wrote Amy Gardner and Isaac Arnsdorf.
Meanwhile, Nevada Republicans joined the growing national push to install election deniers in positions with authority over state elections, choosing a candidate for secretary of state on Tuesday who has embraced Trump’s false claims of election fraud — and who has vowed to try to block a result he deems was rigged. This, of course, has serious implications for future elections.
"Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman who has said he opposed the certification of Joe Biden’s win in Nevada, is among several election deniers to win primaries for statewide offices, including secretaries of state, attorneys general and governors. The victories have come in swing states that could play a major role in the 2024 presidential election, including Nevada, which Biden narrowly won," The Washington Post reported.
Earlier this month, Trump continued his barrage against former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to deny Biden's election certification on January 6. At the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference in Nashville, Trump said “Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be historic.”
However, Trump continued, “Mike did not have the courage to act. Mike was afraid of whatever he was afraid of.” He then called Pence a "human conveyor belt" for moving the election process forward, as required by the Constitution.
It was at the insurrection, of course, where members of the mob screamed "Hang Mike Pence," and erected a makeshift gallows on the Capitol grounds. Since then, testimony at the January 6 committee hearings have shown that Trump told those with him at the White House that day, that maybe the mob had the right idea.
"Had Vice President Pence obeyed the order from his president, that declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a Constitutional crisis," former federal judge J. Michael Luttig told the investigating committee last week.
The question now is how to quell this hate; how to heal the divisions that Trump has caused with his lies, and his pandering to the fears and prejudices of those who blindly support him.
My colleague, CJ Waldron wrote in his blog today that a new Civil War could erupt if Trump is prosecuted by the Justice Department for inciting the insurrection and attempting to overthrow the 2020 election.
Do we risk destroying democracy just to hold one man accountable? asks Waldron in his piece, "A Clear and Present Danger."
However, he adds, not to prosecute Trump would be a dereliction of duty. For the future of this country, for the future of our children and grandchildren, Trump must be held accountable. If not, the bully will win and the Constitution won't be worth the paper upon which it is written.