Dems should force GOP to vote on resolution affirming the Constitution and condemning Trump

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/5/2140181/-Dems-should-force-GOP-to-vote-on-resolution-affirming-the-Constitution-and-condemning-Trump
 
Dems should force GOP to vote on resolution affirming the Constitution and condemning Trump
Dartagnan
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Monday December 05, 2022 · 4:18 PM EST
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It seems almost too obvious, but one way of getting House and Senate Republicans on the record regarding their slavish devotion to Donald Trump is by forcing them into a corner: either they stand publicly with Trump’s statement about throwing out the Constitution to install him as president, or they don’t. As suggested by TalkingPointsMemo reader “JB” and posted with approval by the site’s owner, Josh Marshall, there would seem to be political gold to be mined here.

From “JB’s post, transcribed on TPM:

I wonder if it would be useful to have the House and Senate individually pass resolutions affirming the Constitution and condemning Trump’s outburst. If they vote against it, I could see ads in 2 years about how so-and-so Republican voted against the Constitution and effectively for its “termination.”

Putting both the affirmation of the Constitution and a condemnation of Trump’s statements into a single resolution forces the GOP to take a position. If they vote “yes,” they’ll risk being primaried by a Trump candidate who will use that vote to bludgeon them, resulting in their outright defeat, or bleeding their support when they have to run against a Democrat in the 2024 general election. If they vote “no, Democrats can run ads saying they support throwing out the Constitution, right along with their buddy Trump (who by the way, is going to be right next to them on the ballot).

Many of them, perhaps most — spineless cowards that they are — would probably abstain or simply refuse to vote, but that’s OK too. The Democratic ads will simply state that when given the chance they still refused to affirm the Constitution and they still refused to condemn Trump’s diatribe, which seems like a winner from a Democratic perspective. It may not make a big difference to the GOP base, but, as Josh Marshall also points out in this piece — aptly titled “Hang it Around Their Necks”— a majority of voters in 2022 actually seemed to care about democracy and the Constitution:

Anyone who calls for the overthrow of the federal Constitution is by definition unfit to serve in any office of public trust whatsoever. The fact that such a person is the leader of one party and its probable presidential nominee is a problem not just for the country but for that party. Nothing matters? His supporters don’t care? The 2022 election and frankly the 2020 one too say otherwise.

In 2022, Democratic victories in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada showed that voters rejected Trump’s extremist hand-picked candidates. Hopefully they’ll do the same in Georgia on Tuesday. By continually inserting himself into the political process long after being thrown out of office, Trump — for all the very real danger he represents to democracy — does not seem to realize that when he opens his mouth, or tweets whatever seditious fantasies pop into his head, he provides ammunition for Democrats to use against a GOP still totally trapped in his orbit.

This instance should be no exception, and the time to do it is now.