House Republicans go completely berserk as Donald Trump circles the drain
Despite clamoring for an uprising against the certification of a free and fair election, the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol building put quite a few Republicans on edge, realizing they played with fire. That’s why Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy decided to hurry and tweet a denouncement of the vigilantes and call their behavior “un-American” – ignoring the fact that he’s done nothing in his tenure except fuel the fire and enable the worst of Trump’s instincts. The tweet was appropriately ratio’d on Twitter because it points to everything wrong with the incoming congressional class.
The night before the violence broke out, newly sworn in House Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) appeared at a Trump rally praising the idea of Hitler Youth. It sounds like some nonsense you’d hear from a right-wing radio host, but she really said it – captured on video, while trying to gin up support for overturning the election. Saying “Hitler was right” on its own should be enough of an offense to make one unelectable.
She was called out by fellow House Republican Adam Kinzinger and the state governor, but the sentiments are clear – and she’s not even the first freshman House Republican to praise the most notorious authoritarians in history like this – with Madison Cawthorn bragging about a visit to Hitler’s vacation home. Even with Trump out of the equation, these people can’t disguise their contempt for democracy. Reps. like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are despicable and embarrassing on their own – but they’re beginning to look more like just the tip of the iceberg of bigotry and autocracy that is being admitted into the mainstream GOP.
In 2022, let’s make sure they have more to answer for than their stunt on Wednesday. We must make the midterms a referendum on democracy and the rule of law, and do everything we can to make sure they won’t be entrusted with power again.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making