It should never have come to this

Donald Trump lost the election fair and square, as confirmed in court and every respectable recount and audit. His incitement of the January 6 riot disgraced him. The House impeached him for it, for the second time. And there is a good chance New York State will indict him for tax evasion and other financial crimes. Richard Nixon didn’t come close to this before resigning.

But he is in charge

But Trump is also in charge of the Republican Party. Or shall I say the Republic Party, to imitate its adherents’ shortening of the Democratic Party’s name. It has certainly lost something. The GOP is no longer grand or old. It has departed from fiscal conservatism. It views face masks and social distancing as tyranny. President Lincoln, who suspended habaeus corpus during the Civil War, would find that hard to fathom. And the Republic Party is responding readily to Donald Trump’s racist dog whistles, now audible to everyone.

Then yesterday the Republicans failed to show up at the commemorative events. They thus aligned themselves with the Trump-inspired and -encouraged rioters who attacked The Capitol a year ago to block a constitutionally mandated process. Or more accurately: all but Liz Cheney and her father (!) failed to show up. Denying the events the respect they deserved, the Republicans then accused the Democrats of partisanship. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party: devoted to polarization, big lies, and violence against American institutions.

The test is nigh

Only a few months remain before this new version of the Republican Party chooses its 2022 candidates for Congress and one-third of the Senate. With Trump in charge, they will be people to his liking. In the many Republican strongholds, that won’t matter, as their election is ensured. But in some “battleground” districts and states citizens will have a serious choice between Trumpistas who mouth his fantasies and people firmly grounded in reality. The 2022 election is going to tell us a lot about whether America can escape the Trump stain on its history.

Americans have a choice. They can revert to the politics of polarization, exclusion, and fantasy. Or they can opt for reality, inclusion, and democracy. Even posing the alternatives is saddening. It should never have come to this.

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