One More Week Of Extreme Unease
Then what?
Are Trump’s supporters any more prone to accept reality once President elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20? Since this is all really about holding onto power anyway, even if you lose, are they any less inclined to seek lawless ways to achieve this end? Is there any combination of deeds and acts on the part of the new President that will help them accept reality when someone’s just spent the last 4 years pounding it into their heads that they don’t have to?
The New York Times headlines Trump’s second impeachment as “10 Republicans Break With President”, since 10 Republican House members joined in voting to impeach him for “inciting a violent insurrection against the U.S. government”. And none had last time around.
10! Out of 211 Republicans in the House! 4%! After last Wednesday?!
While I really do appreciate and respect the fortitude of those 10, and it’s certainly significant, it’s also hardly a widespread “break with the President” for his party, after abjectly corrosive behavior on his part. Trump still has a near bottomless well of — if not support — a compulsion to preserve a partisan divide, not to mention conveniently short memories. John Cassidy in the New Yorker gets it right, pointing out in his headline, House Republicans “with ten honorable exceptions, [are] sticking with him.”
