The American Republican Party, a.k.a, the GOP, is dead. Its corpse is already calcified and brittle. Its body, like a baleful barn full of rotten timber, rancid straw, rusted machinery and hot air, is crumbling directly in our eyesight.
If there had been any disbelief in the recent prognostications about the coming end of the political party, all hesitancy to accept that fact was removed when 126 Republicans elected to Congress signed a legal amicus brief recently to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) in support of POTUS Donald Trump’s last attempt to destroy American democracy as we know it.
The case sent to the court asked the SCOTUS to invalidate over 20 million citizen votes in the presidential election from five states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona. It asked the court to do what the U.S. Constitution clearly said could not be done—one state interfering in the citizen elections of other states.
Each of the 126 Republican House members had previously taken an oath of office that said: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” But here they were doing the exact opposite.
This was not just the vaunted ‘freedom of speech’ which we brag about in this country. This was a blatant attempt to support an attempted political coup in the U.S. A required presidential election had taken place; someone had won, another had lost; and the losers were trying to upend and reverse the result not by getting back to their work and attracting voters next time. No, they were trying to invalidate the legitimate votes that had given a 7.5 million popular vote lead, along with a 60+ electoral college plurality to the non-Republican candidate.
The GOP had already earned a reputation for engaging in voter suppression tactics, improperly purging citizens from voting rolls and closing polling places to depress peoples’ rights and freedom to vote. But that activity was most usually stealthy skullduggery done in the dark. This latest gambit was out in the open and simply beyond the pale.
Regularly, but inaccurately, called America’s first political party, the Federalist Party (really more of a political club) of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (1789-1815) had already established the pattern for this kind of political death. This was the political faction of John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, three stalwarts of our U.S. Constitution, two of whom had been the authors of “The Federalist Papers,” the 85 public articles which explained to the ordinary citizens how America’s new government was supposed to work.
This political group had organized a political agenda, had put forth candidates for state and federal elections and had won — and lost — such offices. During the War of 1812, the conflict that produced America’s sovereignty, the Federalists had strongly pushed the idea of no war with France, and advocated instead the establishment and maintenance of a very strong alliance with England. With the victorious Battle of New Orleans, the new country now had the bona fides to boast of its true independence and its non-need to pay attention to either the British or the French in American affairs.
The Federalists were branded traitors and European sycophants—seditious citizens. They lost credibility virtually overnight, and were forced from political respectability. The political party (faction) died within weeks.
That is where the current Republican Party lies. The plight of the 126, and the 17 Republican attorneys general, bringing that last ludicrous suit to court labels them all as seditious plotters aiming to overthrow American democracy. That cannot be tolerated, nor will it be.
As Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi has the right to call a vote which could deny any of those 126 Republicans the ability to take their seats in the session of Congress beginning January 3, 2021. She has too much class to do so, but that is what these oath-breakers actually need. What would follow is the sudden death of the GOP.
And a good riddance to yea all. Long live the United States.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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