How many times have Republicans invoked Neville Chamberlain’s attempt to appease that former Bavarian corporal any time they feel it’s time America showed some petty dictator who’s boss by kicking a bit of foreign butt? You don’t want to be remembered as another Chamberlain, do ya, Democ-Rat?
Juan Cole points to an Otherworlds post that I’ll repost here for its bluntness about Republican appeasement of Donald Trump:
Do Any Republicans Still Support Democracy? by Jill Richardson
Investigative accounts of the Trump administration, like the recent Washington Post feature on the January 6 insurrection, routinely write about three kinds of conservatives.
First, there are the few who took a stand for democracy who have sacrificed their political careers, like Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). Second, there are some who know Biden fairly won the 2020 election but placate conspiracy theorists to protect their political careers. Last, there are those who are true believers in Trump.
Republicans in the second group tell journalists, often anonymously, how they really feel about Trump and the 2020 election. Their base supports Trump, and their base believes Trump’s lies that he won re-election. They go along with their base, convinced it won’t hurt anything.
As Winston Churchill said about appeasing a power-hungry authoritarian ruler, “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, it will eat him last.”
Republicans who understand Trump is a threat to our democracy must organize together to protect their own party. It’s not acceptable to go along with Trump because it is expedient for Republicans’ political agenda.
Trump is such a wild card, he doesn’t even reliably help Republicans’ political agenda: Trump focused solely on his own loss in the 2020 election and failed to support the two Georgia Senate Republicans in their runoffs. The Senate now has a narrow Democratic majority.
Honest Republicans should coordinate a strategy to repudiate Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and reclaim their party. Appeasement is not benign.
Good luck finding enough honest Republicans to coordinate anything. Richardson has more, but that’s the gist. Congress must protect voting rights, etc., etc. But the GOP is also trying to render voting irrelevant, protect voting how you will.
Trump and his supporters tried to carry out a coup. It was violent and people died. More people could have died. The next attempt may be more successful.
Remember when the crocodile comes for you, Republicans, you’ll own that and this guy, too.
