Today in the Atlantic, Tom Nichols has a piece called “Donald Trump Tried to Destroy the Constitution: What will it take for millions of Americans to care?”
Nichols, being more polite than I—and, I think, more polite than is warranted by the viciousness of Trump and his obsequious minions—paints the current crisis accurately but cooly.
In a country that still had a functional moral compass, citizens would watch the January 6 hearings, band together regardless of party or region, and refuse to vote for anyone remotely associated with Donald Trump, whom the committee has proved, I think, to be an enemy of the Constitution of the United States. His party, as an institution, supports him virtually unconditionally, and several GOP candidates around the country have already vowed to join Trump in his continuing attack on our democracy. To vote for any of these people is to vote against our constitutional order.
It’s that simple.
Those who still support Trump are not just enemies of the constitutional order. They are human scum, enemies of all decency and goodness in the human race.
They are not, as they call Democrats in the language of their twisted religiosity, “demons.” Unfortunately, their vile characters and reprehensible attitudes are only too widespread among mere humans. In particular, the single-minded pursuit of the power to harm one’s “enemies” seems nearly irresistible to all those who have not embraced self-improvement as the foundation of a good life.
Precisely because we understand that much of humanity falls into depravity as soon as they get the opportunity, we cannot let the scum get away with it. If we decent Americans stand back and watch them threaten decency, watch them wave their guns around, watch them attack the first legitimate people’s government on earth and then do nothing to stop them gaining even more power, we ourselves would be corrupt. We would deserve the hell that they will wreak upon the nation and the world as soon as they get the chance.
Yet it seems that we are on the verge of suffering this final defeat, the defeat of American democracy itself.
The very fact that so many see the current election cycle as merely another political hortse race is a depressing sign that America is almost lost.
Nichols puts it all into a nutshell:
In the confusion of the moment back in January 2021, it was easier to believe that perhaps the mob was spontaneous, that elected Republicans were sincere in reviling Trump for his part in creating it, and that the GOP might come to its senses, at least where Trump is concerned. Today, thanks to the January 6 committee and the evidence it has amassed, we know better. To vote for anyone still loyal to a party led by the narcissistic sociopath who put our elected officials and our political system itself in peril is to abandon any pretense of caring whether the United States remains a constitutional democracy. The question is whether enough of us will care, in little more than three weeks from now, to make a difference.
That is the question.
If, defying all the pundits and polls, Decent America quietly rises like a calm but determined behemoth in next month’s election and stomps out the vileness of Republicans across the land, we will know that enough of us do care. We will know that the firm hand of majority rule has finally grown infuriated with the arrogant ignorance and abysmal selfishness of Republicans. We will know that the Framers we right in thinking that it takes a lot to move the majority to decisive action, but once roused, it cannot be resisted.
And we will know whether America and its political ideals will survive beyond 2024.