McConnell instructing his caucus before the impeachment votes
With one single exception, they didn’t commemorate it. All the others ignored it. A few publicly defended it with standard GOP crackpottery.
Republicans were nowhere to be found at the Capitol on Thursday as President Biden and Democratic members of Congress commemorated the deadliest attack on the building in centuries, reflecting the Republican Party’s reluctance to acknowledge the Jan. 6 riot or confront its own role in stoking it.
There are currently more than 250 Republican members of Congress — 212 in the House and 50 in the Senate. Not a single one of those senators appeared on the Senate floor ....And when lawmakers gathered in the House chamber for a moment of silence to commemorate the riot, only two Republicans joined: Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has been ostracized and marginalized by her party for speaking out against Mr. Trump and his election lies, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The only Republican-led event on Thursday to commemorate Jan. 6 was hosted by two lawmakers on the fringes of the party, Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Seeking to deflect blame from Mr. Trump, they held a news conference to elevate unproven conspiracy theories about the origins of the assault on the Capitol.
McConnell commented that Democrats were playing politics and accused them of trying to “exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event.” His comment referred to the possibility that Democrats might waive the filibuster to pass a voting rights law.
The less biased news sources generally assert that many congressional Republicans disliked the coup attempt and would have voted to impeach the ex-president if the Senate vote had been held in secret. Given where we are today, does it matter whether some or even most congressional Republicans are horrified at what the GOP has become and what the ex-president is, i.e., a fascist? They keep their silence and just let the poison flow.
Maybe they think that by staying silent, they can stay in power (get re-elected) and soften the harsh authoritarianism the GOP now openly pursues. The irrationality of that reasoning, assuming any congressional Republican actually thinks that way (which I doubt), is in the fact that so far they have exerted no perceptible softening or pro-democracy influence on GOP legislation, policy goals, rhetoric or tactics. In other words, that line of reasoning is garden variety, self-serving bullshit. They just want to stay in power, regardless of what they have irrationalized themselves into believing or how much damage they help inflict on democracy, the rule of law and civil society. Those Republicans, assuming there are any, are invertebrates.
Questions: Is it reasonable to believe that congressional Republicans who don't oppose the open authoritarianism of the GOP are moral cowards, or since they are merely human and inherently flawed, one cannot reasonably expect anything other than this? If this is the best that can be expected from humans, why aren't the Democrats also on board with GOP authoritarianism and silent support of the 1/6 coup attempt?
in·ver·te·brate
/inˈvərdəbrət,inˈvərdəbrāt/
noun
- an animal lacking a backbone
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