Who Supports a Would-Be Dictator?
By Sarah Daley (As published in The Union)
When Nixon was president, Republicans and Democrats agreed on the same facts. They also agreed on what was legal and what was not. After listening to Nixon's missing eighteen minutes on his tapes, Republicans Senators Goldwater and Hugh Scott and Representative Rhodes informed Nixon that the House would impeach him and the Senate would vote to remove him from his office.
Now some Republican cannot agree with the rest of America on what happened on January 6, 2021, even when evaluating the same video footage of that day.
According to the Meriam Webster Dictionary, fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime that stands for a centralized government headed by a leader and/or a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.
The Constitution, as stated in Article I, Section 4 and Article II, Section 1, calls for the peaceful transition of power from the loser to the winner in an election. When the results have initially been unclear, the proclaimed losers of the presidency conceded in 1876, 1960, and 2000. As Vice President Al Gore told CNN’s Jake Tapper in 2020, “I would encourage those who are still supporting the lost cause of President Trump’s reelection to put the country first...There are things that are more important than [winning an election]: the United States of America, our Constitution, and the continuation of the American experiment.”
Did President Trump concede? No he didn't. Instead he vociferously told everyone that the election had been stolen from him. He exhorted his followers to come to Washington DC on January 6 when Congress would be certifying the results of the election that would make Joe Biden our next president. During the rally, he told everyone to go to the Capitol knowing that they had weapons in order to “take our country back.”
Didn't we all see Trump's supporters from that rally physically assault the Capitol police officers who were trying to prevent them from entering the building? Didn't we see these supporters break windows in order to get inside? Didn't we see images of our elected representatives hiding in fear? Didn't we hear these people yelling, “Hang Mike Pence” while they had a gallows waiting for him? If we all did see the same things, wouldn't this be proof of Trump trying to make himself a dictator of our country? And wouldn't this also be proof that some of the MAGA supporters are actually supporting a fascist regime under President Trump?
Does all of America know that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was texting the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to get Trump to call of his mob? Now McCarthy is saying that all Republicans need to agree with Trump's lie of how the election was stolen from him. Why did he change his mind? Is he afraid of his own life if he doesn't or does he want to become the Speaker of the House so badly that he will lie and say anything Trump wants?
Do people know that ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump? Do they know that Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who are staunch conservatives and voted for Trump in both elections, believe our country is more important than any political party? Do they know that all of those who have been testifying in the January 6 hearings are also Republicans who voted for Trump? If so, wouldn't their testimonies matter in showing the world who the real fascist is? And which politician has repeatedly lied to his followers for his own gain? It was not Biden.