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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe impeachment managers have sealed off Republicans' escape hatches
Link to tweet
Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
"Political forces hostile to democracy, freedom and equality thrive when key events of the past are mythologized, distorted or forgotten...This is why we will owe a debt to the House impeachment managers for many years to come."
Terrific @EJDionne column:
Opinion | The impeachment managers have sealed off Republicans escape hatches
Senate Republicans are left with no reason but cowardice to vote for acquittal.
washingtonpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-impeachment-managers-have-sealed-off-republicans-escape-hatches/2021/02/10/4a2ffa62-6be9-11eb-ba56-d7e2c8defa31_story.html
The House impeachment managers moved efficiently on Wednesday to close off the escape hatches and back doors for Senate Republicans. Quietly but passionately, they put the lie to the sham alibis that weak and cowardly members of the GOP are likely to invoke if they decide to do Donald Trumps bidding one more time.
Those who vote to acquit the former president will now own it all: The incendiary speech that made the nations capital a killing ground but also the months of incitement and lying that built up to the violence.
They will own the threats against elected officials who refused to cheat on Trumps behalf, the attacks on Black voters in big cities, and the savage mendacity of his all-caps tweets. Voting to acquit will mean joining in Trumps rejection of the democratic obligation to accept the outcome of a free election and in his declarations even before the voting began that this was a rigged and stolen contest.
And it fell to Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) to make clear to Republican senators that if they vote with Trump, they will be endorsing a would-be tyrant who declared that a Republican elected official who refused to the find Trump votes that didnt exist was an enemy of the people. The GOPs loyal anti-communists might remember that this term directed by Trump against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was a favorite of Joseph Stalins.
*snip*
Sneederbunk
(14,291 posts)still_one
(92,217 posts)SharonClark
(10,014 posts)They'll take the usual route - voting with trump and lying about the significance if what he did and their complicity.
50 Shades Of Blue
(10,009 posts)NCjack
(10,279 posts)TeamPooka
(24,229 posts)dhill926
(16,343 posts)DFW
(54,403 posts)That's what worries me.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)or at least his ass kissers in the Senate
lastlib
(23,244 posts)weasels are noble beasts compared to that trainload of diarrheic whale-shit.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)Sorry, weasels.
keithbvadu2
(36,823 posts)Can they vote 'present'?
lastlib
(23,244 posts)But if they did, I think it would be signing their political death warrant. My 2cts.
bucolic_frolic
(43,177 posts)against which all of them as well as their lies will be judged. I am feeling more optimistic about this as the week moves along. We all knew the televised evidence was there, but like the prosecutors many of them are, they provided the connections and causality with bulked up evidence and unassailable logic. This is the week American democracy was saved, but we still must win the war.
yonder
(9,666 posts)won't be surfacing soon while their leaky vessel takes on even more water.
Silent3
(15,220 posts)...I have yet to find the bottom of how low elected Republicans will sink out of pure craven interest in maintaining power, and their unlimited capacity for hypocrisy and not giving a damn about anyone else or the future of the country.
Their escape hatch is "Who cares? Not me".
yellowdogintexas
(22,264 posts)The Marianas trench actually does have a bottom and these folks seem to be diving to find it.
ancianita
(36,067 posts)The 'not guilty' crowd are followers of their "I'm not responsible" leader. His fascist followers only care about "might makes right" and rising up again to prove they can beat all security forces.
The main thing is that the American people know the truth now, about Trump, his congressional cult and the nationwide followers who would burn it all down.
For the next twenty years we have to treat every single election as if it is 2020, or they will do just that.
onetexan
(13,042 posts)I had never heard of Delegate Stacey Pluckett till i saw footage of her arguments yesterday, and boy is she good!!
Here's the thing about the darn Repugs: they're damned if they do, & they're damned if they dont (vote to or against conviction).
So you'd think that would be enough incentive to be on the right side of history given either way you're screwed. It goes without saying they shouldn't even have to consider voting against conviction, but that's giving them too much credit. These suckers are too damn power hungry OR are afraid of a con man whose now out of office, and his ignorant minions. Having a moral spine is definitely not a requirement to be a GOP senator these days apparently.
Prof. Toru Tanaka
(1,967 posts)How very true and spot-on.
And they have no one to blame but themselves. They painted themselves into this corner.
They had numerous opportunities to reject Trump from the time he came down the escalator but instead they chose to embrace him. Even though Trump disparaged Mexican citizens, a former POW and Senator, a disabled journalist, a Gold Star family, and women both individually and as a whole. And this is just a few examples of many during the run-up to the 2016 election.
All in the name of power and retaking the WH after 8 years of the Obama administration.
And then after Trump became president, they thought they could control him. Well, now we see who controls who. And even now when they could easily rid themselves of this menace to us all by doing the right thing and convict, they will cling to him and vote to acquit.
I also agree with your assessment of Delegate Pluckett- I sometimes forget the House has 6 non-voting members representing DC and the five US territories.
Hamlette
(15,412 posts)An essential requirement for political progress is an accurate understanding of what led a country to the state its in. Political forces hostile to democracy, freedom and equality thrive when key events of the past are mythologized, distorted or forgotten.
The stab in the back myth that falsely blamed the political left for Germanys loss in World War I paved the way for Hitler. In our history, another outright lie that the Civil War was about states rights and not slavery strengthened the forces of white supremacy for generations.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)NCjack
(10,279 posts)responsibly in all of their election campaigns.