The Republican Party Hangs in the Balance

Today, Monday, January 25, 2021, is the day the House is expected to deliver the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, and that means all Republicans are going to have to decide whether they want to listen to their conscience or ignore it wholesale and stain the Republican Party forever to the point where it can no longer thrive from a political or legislative standpoint.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger said on CNN this morning, it’s up to the Republicans to “restore the trust” that’s been lost since the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.

Just because Donald J. Trump has left office and is no longer president doesn’t mean the Republican Party should stop holding him accountable for his actions that led to the notorious insurrection.

In fact, the absolute opposite is true: it’s incumbent on all GOP members to weigh in on the extent to which Trump held our democracy hostage with his constant barrage of lies and “Stop the Steal “ placards his base held up in public for all to see. Trump not only attempted to steal the fair and square election won by the Democratic Party, but he also tried to get the U.S. Department of Justice to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election and throw out the January 6 election certification results — all in his frantic and brazenly illegal attempts to subvert the election and hold onto power.

The Supreme Court didn’t want anything to do with those illegal actions on the part of the former president and quickly washed its hands of him, while GOP Sen. Liz Cheney emerged as the first Republican who was brave enough to break from her party and say enough is enough.

It’s always been about accountability, and it always will. Because without accountability, we may as well continue to let politicians commit heinous misdeeds and trash our treasured democracy and constitution.

With Trump’s pretrial brief due February 8 and the Senate trial scheduled to begin February 9, the looming question remains: Will GOP Senators be courageous enough to break from their ranks like Sen. Liz Cheney already has, let their consciences be their guide and vote to convict Trump? Or will they merely push their consciences aside, ignore Trump’s misdeeds and submissively kowtow to the pressures of their donors?