by Alon Ben-Meir*
I am still at pains to internalize what sinister schemes Republican leaders in the House and Senate are concocting only to retain power, at whatever cost to the country and its future.
Terrified of the demographic evolution
The Republicans are terrified of the changing demographics of the country. Many demographers have concluded that by the year 2045, whites will become a minority in the country, with Hispanic, Black, and Asian Americans who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats becoming the collective majority.
In reality, the Republican Party is already the minority party and their numbers will continue to shrink with the demographic evolution.
Indeed, if the presidential elections were truly free and fair, and not skewed through the grossly uneven representation created through the Electoral College, which gives outsized influence to the least-populated states, it would be most unlikely that another Republican president could set foot in the White House.
For this reason, the Republican Party will resort to any means, regardless of how racist and corrupt they may be, to tamper with elections in order to change the outcomes in their favor.
Instead of adjusting to the demographic reality facing the United States and developing new policies and socio-economic programs to meet the new challenges and attract more Hispanic and Black voters to their ranks, the Republican Party chose to resort to extreme conservatism and white supremacy to shield their turf.
Voter suppression
As of December 15, 2021, 32 bills across 17 states were passed that interfere with electoral administration, creating criminal and civil penalties for election administrators and public officials. Florida, Georgia, and Virginia created electoral fraud law enforcement units after the 2020 election, despite no widespread fraud in any of these states.
A Wisconsin GOP election commissioner bragged about the state’s voting suppression efforts against Black and Hispanic voters. A new Arizona law passed in March 2022 requires documented proof of citizenship in order to vote. In 2021, restrictions passed in Florida and Georgia add barriers to vote by mail, restrict the use of ballot drop boxes, and more.
On a federal level, in 2018 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of an Ohio law that removes individuals from voter rolls if they haven’t voted in a two-year period, even if they remain eligible to vote.
Charges and convictions against Trump
Other than enacting these new laws and rules to impact election results in favor of white people, Republicans need a popular leader who is shameless and a bigot like Trump, who is openly a white supremacist and will do anything to regain power.
Indeed, it is not for the love of Trump, who a growing number of Republican leaders despise, but for the millions that follow him who have deliberately been misguided and misinformed but still bask in his lies and whose votes the Republican Party needs to win an election.
The fact that Republican leaders cling to such a loathsome character simply boggles the mind. But to grasp the magnitude of how corrupt the GOP has become and how low it has descended by following this irredeemable criminal, a quick look at Trump’s character and misdeeds will tell the whole sad story.
Trump permanently flouts U.S. laws
In this year alone, Trump has faced multiple indictments and civil lawsuits. In April, he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (all related to hush payments to Stormy Daniels). The following month, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
In June 2023, he was indicted on 37 felony counts related to mishandling classified documents, and in October a civil case against Trump for fraudulently overvaluing the company’s assets and his personal net worth is scheduled to begin.
In December 2022, the Trump Organization was convicted on 17 counts and was fined $1.6 million over a 15-year tax fraud scheme. And in November 2016, Trump settled a lawsuit against Trump University and paid $25 million over fraud allegations.
Yet more investigations
In addition, there are still other ongoing investigations against Trump which more than likely will lead to new indictments, including in Fulton County, GA, where Trump attempted to illegally overturn the 2020 election result. He is also being investigated about his role behind the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
Indeed, none of the above can hardly come as a shock. He is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice – first in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and second in 2021 on charges of insurrection related to January 6 (on which 57 Senators voted to convict, including 7 Republicans, just shy of the 60 votes needed).
The man’s vacuous narcissism simply knows no bounds: Every time he opens his mouth, he brings shame on the United States. More alarmingly though, Trump embodies the darkness of nihilism. He is the very personification of a solipsistic outlook on the world, which cares for nothing but oneself, and which values nothing but self-aggrandizement.
The truth is that he is a pitiful creature, whose loathsomeness and moral decrepitude should serve as a warning to all that a life pursued solely for the sake of one’s own power and privilege is a life that leads necessarily to ignominy and disgrace.
The GOP’s moral and political bankruptcy
What is even more depressing is that the majority of Republicans continue to rally to Trump’s defense. Rather than acknowledge the overwhelming evidence against him, they choose to follow him blindly, insisting that his woes are a politically motivated witch hunt when in fact it is that these Republicans are the ones who are haunted by their fear of never gaining power again.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the leading Republican in Congress (third in line for the presidency, no less) had the beastly audacity to tweet in reaction to Trump’s latest indictment, “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice.”
McCarthy reveals by this tweet that he endorses the criminal behavior of Trump and could not care less for the rule of law and the future of this great nation. He is just like his master, a bald-faced liar and hypocrite who put to shame the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. And this is the man standing at the helm of the Republican Party.
Jeopardizing national security
The one most terrifying aspect of the felonious Republican conduct that must be emphasized is that the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States. It could also put at risk the security of our friends and allies, the safety of the United States military, the human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
This is the highest of the Republican Party’s moral and political bankruptcy and constitutes nothing less than a betrayal of the United States and the commitment that every Congressman is sworn to uphold to protect the country from foreign and domestic enemies.
Indeed, the Republican Party has become naught but an organization dedicated to tearing down whatever vestiges of decency remain in this country. This is not the party of Lincoln that chose to preserve the Union at all costs, but the party that chose to destroy it.
It would worship the devil, the likes of Trump, who will stop short of nothing to use the Republican Party, just as the party uses him to reclaim power. This is the horror of this symbiotic relationship which poses the greatest menace to the United States today, which must be arrested.
Conclusion
Trump has not only utterly corrupted the soul of this nation. He represents and epitomizes the moral, epistemic and spiritual decay of the United States. He is the single most naked symptom of our ruination as a country that values truth, justice, the rule of law and the light of reason.
If the Republican Party continues to travel this perilous path, it will be tantamount to political suicide, and they have Trump to thank for the party’s demise as we know it.
*professor and Retired Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute
**first published in: Theglobalist.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
