The Republican Party is Truly to Blame for the Capitol Riots

Yesterday the nation watched with shock and awe as a large mob of Donald Trump-supporting protesters marched on Washington D.C. in defense of the president’s efforts to overturn the recent election results. They eventually made their way to the Capitol building, where they fought against security and officers, breaking through barricades to force their way into the building where Congress was to officially certify the election win for Joe Biden. The capitol riots were absolute violence and mayhem which has now ended with 4 protesters and 1 police officer dead and many arrested, leaving D.C. in a state of unrest. While many are pointing their fingers at Donald Trump as the one to blame for the violence, I actually have a different opinion – it is the Republican Party as a whole who is truly to blame for this bullshit.

Some Are Surprised By the Riots….. Seriously?!

Anyone with a pulse and even a slight ability to critically think shouldn’t be at all surprised that something like this has happened. The trademark to Trump’s brand of divisive politics is to rally his supporters around the idea that whenever he doesn’t get his way then democracy in America is doomed as we know it. Since losing the election, he has barely put any time or focus into the many problems that currently plague this country, but instead has obsessed over pushing the idea that the election was “stolen” from him and there is a large scale conspiracy headed by the Democratic Party.

What has been truly bothering me is that it had to come to this for Republican and GOP politicians to finally come out in defiance of Trump. Even members of Trump’s administration are resigning in horror. But….. where have you all been for the past 4 years? Everyone is seriously acting surprised as if Trump hasn’t been shamelessly inciting such things for the past 4 years. Yet we are now supposed to believe that THIS event is what broke the camel’s back, so much so that many are calling for Vice President Mike Pence to enact the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office. And while that would be the cherry on top of the cake that is Trump losing the election, I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you.

The truth is that most of the right has been sitting by quietly, entertaining and enabling this behavior for the past 4 years, or shamelessly supporting and possibly emulating it. And just because 5 people had to die for them to finally demonstrate that they actually have any sense of logic and reason, doesn’t exonerate the party from fault. Or somehow make them saviors of democracy.

Mike Pence Is Not a Hero

Everyone has been heralding Mike Pence as some kind of hero since all this has been going down. He has been taking a lot of shit from Trump lately about him not taking a more proactive stance to help him overturn the election results. And as the person expected to officiate the electoral college results in front of Congress for Biden’s win, Trump expected Pence to use the moment to fight back. But Pence has been quietly distancing himself from Trump’s efforts, without condemning him out loud, but instead doing things that subtly imply that he no longer supports Trump.

Personally, I think Mike Pence can fuck off. He brands himself as the most Christian Christian to ever Christian, yet he has aligned himself politically with someone like Donald Trump, the devil incarnate if there ever were one. He has stood by a man who has allegedly cheated on his wife, has multiple sexual assault and rape allegations against him, and was long-time butt buddies with Jeffrey Epstein.

So finally, a moment comes where he and his Republican constituency are backed into a bit of a corner – there is absolutely no way they can support violence and mayhem on this level, and since Trump singlehandedly provoked it using social media, they have no option but to distance themselves from it. At this point, it would be political (and moral) suicide to support what took place on Wednesday.

If anything, Pence is doing what all other Republican politicians are doing – he’s simply saving face. If these events had somehow served to better his political ambitions and didn’t harm him in anyway, he wouldn’t say or do anything. But now he has no choice – his political future depends on how he handles this situation. All eyes are on him right now, and most are hoping he brings us back to a sense of normalcy in American politics. But he has spent the past 4 years sitting by Trump’s side, mostly quiet, but that silence absolutely makes him complicit. He is just as much to blame as Trump is.

Trump obviously used Pence’s religious views, influence and standing within the Catholic and Christian voter community to advance his own political agenda. Anyone that believes Trump is truly a man of faith is being willfully ignorant. I do not hate Pence and I believe he is a man of some intellect and decency, so I believe he has to have had some sort of existential crisis at some point when it came time to back Trump as Vice…. or did he??

My point is that I don’t think anyone truly knows Pence or what is going on in his head. His moves are always subtle, calculated and safe, and he gets away with it because he never says too much, but just enough to get by. I believe he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and we should not be so quick to put him on a pedestal as some savior of democracy. It’s a lot like that Chris Rock bit about black dads wanting praise for actually being around and being a dad – upholding the constitution is part of his job. So shut the hell up and do work, son.

The ONLY Voice of Reason in the Republican Party – Mitt Romney

If you would have told me a few years ago, back when Mitt Romney was running against Barrack Obama and I first became familiar with him, that I would one day deem him as the voice of reason for the Republican party, I probably would have laughed in your face. But it’s not that I’ve ever HATED Romney, I’ve just simply disagreed with his political views.

I think it’s important to establish the fact that I also don’t HATE the Republican party as a whole. Politics for me used to be about disagreeing about how to handle certain issues. And while I’ve always tended to lean left, and more progressive in recent years, there are some issues that I’m in the middle on or may even surprisingly lean a bit right on. With that said, the Republican party is not inherently bad and I’ve never been dogmatic in my political leanings or party affiliation.

So witnessing the Trump era has left me cynical about the state of American politics. I do not believe that Trump or his politics are a representation of Republican’s and their political philosophies. It has always puzzled me why just about every Republican politician has remained quiet, never daring to say a bad thing about Trump during these 4 years, even when he does and says the most ridiculous, sometimes hateful shit imaginable. I imagine that many feared his power and influence, and also thought that they would lose reelection without the support of the Trump base. Or maybe his hateful rhetoric secretly aroused them. Or maybe the idea of a Trump cult, following them around, yelling insults was terrifying.

While there has been a few other dissenters through the years (I could literally probably count on one hand how many), Mitt Romney has been the true consistent voice that has disavowed the president, his rhetoric and certain policy positions. This has garnered personal attacks made public by Trump and even harassment in public places by Trump supporters.

I’m sure his decision to stand out as the only dissenting voice wasn’t an easy one. But above everything, I get the sense that he is an honorable, well disciplined man, simply doing what he feels is right. I get the sense that he is being a strong representation of his beliefs and the things he stands for and he has officially earned my utmost respect.

In Conclusion

There are so many to blame for what went down Wednesday, but I do feel the Republican party is most at fault. Trump has set out to redefine the party and they all went along with it, despite the fact that he doesn’t represent them or their ideas. The only effective capacity he does represent them in is winning… or at least that was the case in 2016. Now that his fiery brand of ‘burn this shit to the ground’ clearly isn’t working anymore and his prospects for a 2024 run are pretty much dead on arrival, NOW the party decides to grow a pair and demand change.

There is nothing more shameful to me then someone that is willing to abandon their principles and ideas they hold dear for trivial reasons. The Republican party has always claimed to be the party of the working class, religious rights and the American Dream. They constantly preach about their adoration for the constitution and the founding fathers, yet a Trump comes along to destroy and defy all those things, and they all look away like it’s not happening. The audacity is absolutely astounding and everyone of them should be ashamed

If America isn’t open minded to it, we will absolutely miss the learning experience all of this has allotted, and that would be the absolute worst thing to come out of all this. But above all, the Republican party needs to take a long look in the mirror, and figure out their identity, because it seems they have lost all sense of purpose, beliefs and who they really are.