When those six hands went up during the Republican presidential debate a few days ago, I thought it qualified as the year\u2019s most terrifying moment.\u00a0 And at the time it did.\u00a0 But no longer.\u00a0 MAGA Republicans have superseded it.<\/p>\n
Polls show that as many as 80 percent of Republicans say they also would vote for Donald Trump even if he were convicted of a felony.<\/p>\n
And remember: Not only is Trump charged with committing a felony \u2013 91 felonies actually — but he also is essentially charged with running a criminal empire dedicated to destroying America as we know it.\u00a0 He is charged under laws that Congress wrote specifically to help law enforcers go after Mafia dons, and that\u2019s exactly what the Department of Justice did.<\/p>\n
The department did not charge Trump with incitement because it said he has the First Amendment right to lie about the election all he wants to. But it did charge him with:<\/p>\n
Those crimes are damn near treason, and Republicans overwhelmingly<\/em> want him to be our president! !!!<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 They want him even though he opposes the right to vote and have your vote counted, and he runs a criminal empire to get it done.\u00a0 They forgive him all that while they focus on finding some way to impeach President Biden.<\/p>\n Yes yes I know a person is innocent until proven guilty.\u00a0 But that\u2019s legally guilty.\u00a0 We all know Trump did at least most of what he is charged with, and any one of them is enough to eliminate him from the ballot.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s so much more.\u00a0 Those charges are in addition to the 13 felony counts in Georgia that accuse him of racketeering, forgery, filing false documents and making false statements; 34 felony charges in New York for falsifying business records; and a civil case in New York charging him with financial fraud.<\/p>\n He\u2019s even a convicted rapist whose victim is suing him for character assassination.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the person Republicans want to be president of the United States of America.\u00a0 Unbelievable.<\/p>\n Here is a man who, according to The Washington Post, publicly made more than 800 inaccurate claims about the election from the time polls started closing on Nov. 3, 2020,\u00a0 until he left the White House.\u00a0 Dozens of times he characterized the election as \u201crigged,\u201d \u201cstolen\u201d or \u201ca hoax.\u201d\u00a0 He flatly declared he had won even though a mountain of evidence showed he had lost, and he admitted privately he knew he had lost.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s not enough for Republicans to throw him out of the race, add to the list the undeniable truth that the 14th<\/sup> Amendment clearly\u00a0 prohibits Trump from running for president — or from holding any other public office, ever.\u00a0 Section 3 of the amendment stipulates that any person who has ever \u201cengaged in insurrection or rebellion\u201d against the United States, or \u201cgiven aid or comfort to the enemies thereof\u201d, shall forever be prohibited from holding any state or federal office.<\/p>\n The amendment does not demand that a person be convicted of engaging in an insurrection or rebellion.\u00a0 It only stipulates that he\/she had \u201cengaged in\u201d or \u201cgiven aid or comfort\u201d to those who did.<\/p>\n Who can deny with a straight face that Trump gave the rioters aid and comfort?\u00a0 The riot lasted seven hours, and much of that time Trump sat in the White House dining room watching it on television.\u00a0 His aides pleaded with him to do something but he refused.\u00a0 By the time he finally did do something at least 2,000 rioters had crashed through the Capitol building, five people had been fatally injured, and about 140 officers had suffered injuries.\u00a0 Trump fiddled while Rome burned and we all watched him do it.<\/p>\n Our Founding Fathers feared one thing above all else, and that was that a demagogue would arise, become president, and Congress and the American people would succumb to him.\u00a0 Trump is the very definition of the word demagogue, he is rising, and a\u00a0 lot of Americans are succumbing to him.<\/p>\n But Republicans don\u2019t care about his being a demagogue. They don\u2019t care about all his\u00a0 felonies.\u00a0 They don\u2019t even mind trampling on the Constitution if that\u2019s what it takes to get Donald Trump elected next year.<\/p>\n There can be no denying what these new Republicans want.\u00a0 They want to destroy our democracy and replace it with a Trump-headed authoritarian form of government.\u00a0 They want to win, and they\u2019ll do anything to do it.<\/p>\n For evidence of what Republicans are doing you need look no further than what the far-right Freedom Caucus is doing in Congress right now.\u00a0 It is threatening to shut down the government unless Congress includes three items in the legislation it must pass soon to keep the government funded:<\/p>\n The sponsors do not suggest a way to \u201caddress the unprecedented weaponization,\u201d they don\u2019t define \u201cwoke\u201d, and they don\u2019t say what those \u201cwoke policies\u201d are.<\/p>\n So those demands are pure blather.\u00a0 You could build a Three Stooges plot around them. No way those three items could pass the Senate, ever, even in this unanchored world.\u00a0 And the sponsoring Republicans know it.<\/p>\n You\u2019d think, or at least hope, that if these folks want a dictator they\u2019d have the guts to come right out and say so. Put on the ballot in plain English whatever it would take to end democracy and replace it with \u2013 call it what you will \u2013 authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, fascism, neo-Nazism.<\/p>\n But they won\u2019t.\u00a0 They hide.<\/p>\n Sum total: A civil war is not in our future; it has begun.\u00a0 It is here.\u00a0 The shooting hasn\u2019t started yet, but you know that if Trump feels a conviction closing in he\u2019ll call for violence.\u00a0 It\u2019s his style and he\u2019s preparing for it.<\/p>\n You know it will happen.\u00a0 Remember what he did during the Capitol riot.\u00a0 And remember his recent blast on Truth Social: \u201cIF YOU COME AFTER ME I\u2019M COMING FOR YOU.\u201d\u00a0 And powerful people are coming after him.<\/p>\n Leaning toward violence is just what Trump does.\u00a0 He\u2019s been hinting at violence ever since he took that ride down the escalator to announce his candidacy, and his minions appear to be awaiting his call to begin.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s let it begin.\u00a0 I hope the Republican Party does nominate Trump as their candidate and force Americans to see the stark-naked differences between him and President Joe Biden.\u00a0 When the race gets down to two people, the differences will glare.<\/p>\n I most certainly hope Republicans will not<\/em> nominate one of those six hand raisers.\u00a0 Those raised hands revealed them as Trump lite, wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing who only appear more benign than Trump. Any candidate who would vote for Donald Trump under these circumstances is dangerous and does not deserve to be president or anything else.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s keep the choice real here.\u00a0 Bring on Trump.\u00a0 If they will, I trust Americans enough to believe that once they see the stark differences between him and Biden that\u00a0 there will be such a blue tsunami it will take Republicans years to recover, if they ever do.<\/p>\n If you like this column please recommend it to your friends.\u00a0 I appreciate all feedback, both from those who agree with me and those who don\u2019t, and I will respond to all replies.\u00a0 I may print your replies unless you tell me not to, but I will never use a name unless you specifically authorize it.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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