At the end of his eulogy to Caesar, Marc Antony, knowing he had succeeded in turning the Roman mob against Brutus and his co-conspirators, ends his speech with an aside - "Now let it work. Mischief thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt." As I heard the testimony of former underlings of President Trump before the January 6 Committee, I was reminded of this scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The similarity was obvious with Trump firing up the mob to attack the Capitol. The difference though was glaring. Democracy in America, unlike Caesar, was not dead; and, as it turned out, would live to fight another day. But while the findings of the Committee are compelling, no mob is gathering to wreak vengeance on Trump and his co-conspirators. More telling for me was that Republican officials at all levels while testifying to Trump's wrong-doing and touting their own courage in standing up to him, nevertheless said they would vote for him if he is nominated in 2024. The mob in this real-life drama is on the side of Trump et al. Hard as this to believe, it is our reality.
Much is made of Republicans like Pence, Chaney and Kinzinger for their courage on 1/6 and its aftermath. I would not begrudge them their due in kudos and Profiles in Courage awards. I will also not forget that they, like the vast majority of their party, voted for him and with him, and looked away when he broke rules and laws and undermined the national interest. Given what we know about him now, do you wonder what our position on the Ukraine issue would be if he was in office? Can our foreign policy really be dictated by the whim of an individual even if that individual is the president. And if so, how are we different from Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Iran, North Korea or China? Where were our checks and balances which, apparently, the Founding Fathers had in mind when they formed this imperfect Union, when Trump was in office? Republicans who opposed Democratic presidents, sometimes on policy but mostly on politics, saw no problem with supporting a renegade from their own party even when he was undermining our security. Those of us who are critical of Biden for his handling of any number of issues should be thinking of how we can give him a real majority in both Houses of Congress so he can actually get the things that we consider important done. Instead of closing ranks we continue with our circular firing squad. There is nothing inevitable about the outcome of a mid-term election if the party in the majority refuses to give up the ghost. The party that beat Trump and won majorities in the House and Senate in 2020 can do it again and must stop behaving like losers.