written 3 March 2024
published 10 March 2024
The Republican party looks like a bad soap opera. If it wasn't so disruptive, it would be comical. After a lifetime of ducking responsibility, Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials and is running for president to avoid the consequences of his previous actions. Trump hopes judges he appointed while president will delay his trails until he returns to power, when he will kill the Federal cases.
In Florida, Trump is accused of willful retention of classified documents. The trial is overseen by Trump appointed Judge Cannon, a judge with limited experience who has already been slapped down by higher courts for judicial incompetence. Being a loyalist, she has slow walked the case, such that it may never come to trial before the November election.
In Washington DC, Trump is accused of involvement in the January 6th insurrection. To stall the trial, he appealed, claiming presidential immunity, despite Constitutional clarity that all Americans are subject the rule of law. The Republican majority on the Supreme Court, half appointed by Trump and demonstrably corrupt themselves, have chosen to delay ruling until mid-summer, raising doubt this trial may happen before the election either.
However, in a few weeks Trump is facing trial for criminal election interference in a State of New York court. With no compliant judges at hand, this may be the first criminal case to be heard.
Trump's transgressions aren't limited to criminal behavior. Despite pontificating he is rich beyond belief, he is a convicted business fraud, accruing fines over $500M, which he now claims he can't afford. To avoid payment, he has begun secretly moving funds and companies out of New York, which has jurisdiction in these cases.
This is the Republican presidential frontrunner, supported by most of the party. So much for integrity, or law and order.
But this tragi-comedy is much more than just Trump. After decades of work, Republicans finally stacked the Supreme Court with fanatical religious conservatives, who overturned the right to abortion. The stated goal is to outlaw "recreational sex". What does that leave, just professional sex? Will women be treated primarily as breeding stock?
The next step is to legally declare citizenship begins at conception, therefore prohibiting contraception, criminalizing miscarriages, and halting several fertilization techniques. Needless to say, these are very unpopular ideas, but Republicans seem mystified about the backlash, claiming Biblical certainty that this will "Make America Great Again".
The Republicans hold a razor thin majority in the House of Representatives, and their complete incompetence is another dimension of this drama. They required the most votes since the Civil War to choose their first Speaker. After the third shortest tenure in history, he was replaced by a zealot with no leadership experience, who is about to be replaced himself, for the transgression of working with Democrats.
The 118th Congress has passed just 22 bills, the fewest on record, while spending time trying to impeach the president's son to help twice impeached Trump look less like a criminal. Of the two key Republican impeachment sources, the first was found to be a Chinese intelligence agent, and the second was recently jailed for telling lies to the FBI, spreading Russian disinformation.
The government is approaching yet another shutdown, due to Republican incapacity to actually govern and pass funding legislation. After weeks of bipartisan work on a bill to deal with the border crisis, giving conservatives much of what they have wanted for years, the House killed the bill because Trump wanted to keep border chaos as a campaign issue. Despite broad bipartisan support, critical aid to Ukraine is stalled in the House, because Trump likes Putin.
In the real world, where the rest of us live, 2023 was the hottest on record, and 2024 is already hotter. The North Atlantic is so warm, weather patterns and fish stock are being affected. In February, some areas of the mid-west were 40°F above normal for this time of the year. Over one million acres are currently burning in the largest wildfire in Texas history. Despite the recent blizzard in the west, most of America had no snow this winter. Yet Republican dogma is "climate change is a hoax".
If you care about representative democracy, if you care about the health of women you love, if you care about the climate, the current GOP has nothing for you. We are better than this, and deserve leadership, not drama queens.
