The transformation of the Republican Party

A festival for the greatest loser in US history, complete with a full-size gold statue of a Cartoon Trump, wearing pants in the colours of Old Glory, waving a gold wand, and carrying a document he has ignored during his ill-starred presidency, the US Constitution

By Vijaya Chandrasoma

This ‘notice’ appeared on Parler, a right-wing radical rag, in the name of Donald J. Trump, on 11 January 2021, less than week after the assault on the Capitol on 6 January. The insurrection by Trump thugs, incited by Trump, which is currently under investigation by the FBI; an investigation which is uncovering increasing evidence that many Republican members of Congress and Trump political appointees were directly and indirectly involved.

“I have invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, to address the treasonous rebellion conducted by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, CCP (Communist Party of China) agents, the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA and others to undermine, corrode and dismantle the United States of America and its constitution. These entities pose a direct threat to national security. I will remain President indefinitely until all domestic enemies are arrested.”

These are the depths to which American ‘politics’ has plummeted today.

The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law that empowers the President of the United States to deploy military and federalised National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to subdue civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion.

In any event, the President of the United States does not have the power to invoke the Act without request from the legislature and/or the Governor of the state in which the civil disorder is taking place. The insurrection took place in Washington D.C. (District of Columbia), the capital of the nation. Washington is not a state, and does not have a Governor. The administrative duties of the District are headed by the Mayor, Muriel Bowser. 

When Bowser saw the violence unfolding at the Capitol, that the Capitol Police was being overwhelmed, she begged Trump and his Acting Secretary of Defence Christopher Miller, who had the final authority to deploy the National Guard, for reinforcements. The Commanding Officers of the National Guard were awaiting instructions to deploy troops within minutes, on instructions of Secretary Miller and Trump. Instructions which came only after 89 minutes of murder and mayhem. 

Miller was ‘unavailable’, a strange place to be when the lawmakers of the nation’s Seat of Government were under assault and in imminent danger to their very lives. And Trump refused to send military reinforcements, because he felt the ‘optics’ of the presence of the National Guard would send ‘the wrong message’ to the television viewers watching with horror the unfolding violence. 

It took the National Guard a full 89 minutes to reach the Capitol, a mere 15-minute drive from its headquarters in DC. 89 minutes in which six people were killed, hundreds wounded, battered with flagpoles, maimed and eyes gouged. 89 minutes when Trump, his family and cronies were watching the violence on television at the White House with glee, cheering on the mob. 89 minutes during which time QAnon and other white trash were attempting to assassinate Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi, who were conducting their constitutional duty of ratifying the presidential election of 2020. 

Which was the reason Trump selected the date, 6 January, to unleash the violence, as it represented, in his deluded mind, his last shot at remaining in power and out of prison.

I have been educated not to use the term ‘white supremacy’ in reference to these racist thugs. There is nothing ‘supreme’ about them. They are the dregs of monsters who committed genocide, practiced slavery and apartheid, and are responsible for the racial violence rampant today. White domestic terrorism is currently recognised as the greatest threat facing the USA today by every intelligence agency in the nation.

Most virulent strain of the plague of white racism

A few words about the latest and most virulent strain of the plague of white racism. QAnon or simply, Q, the latest successor to the KKK, have been encouraged to crawl out of the woodwork by Trump. After he gained the presidency by rigging the 2016 election with the help of his bosses, the Russians, the only way he could remain in power was by exploiting the inherent racism and potential for violence of these white racists.

Q is a lunatic fringe, a cult of radical right wing conspiracy theorists who believe that a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic paedophiles who drink the blood of children have been plotting against Trump. They claim The Big Lie, that Trump won the November election, that he is still in power. He was to be crowned as the 19th President of the US on 4 March. Which proved to be a damp squib. 

Trump continues to outdo himself in his mania to lie under any circumstances. The sadly amazing fact is that millions of white racist Americans believe and support him. Together with a large number of brown-skinned Sri Lankans, to my personal knowledge, both in Sri Lanka and Los Angeles (I am sure there are such sycophants in many other countries). They adore Trump, but exhibit their devotion in styles different to the traditional worship of their white racist counterparts, because their noses are already brown.

On a personal note, the United States is my country of adoption, which welcomed me with open if prolonged legal arms, and gave me a second chance in life. I have lived in two major cities, Los Angeles in the liberal state of California for 15 years, and in Phoenix, then a city in the Republican state of Arizona, for five. I made many friends, but like all first-generation Sri Lankans abroad, our circle was mainly made up of our compatriots. Integration, for many immigrants, begins in the second generation. In Phoenix, where the Sri Lankan community wasn’t large, I made many American friends of various skin colours. I suffered my share of racism, especially when I was pulled over for a traffic offence, but rarely in my social or working life. 

But I never met anyone, Sri Lankan or American, who would overtly support a racist and perverse crook like Trump. I was wrong. That is the mystery, that people I thought were normal human beings could worship the most evil man who ever walked the Earth. That is beyond my comprehension. 

The damp squib

Now we come to the second declaration, the damp squib referred to earlier:

Ivanka Trump tweeted, with the full support of the crazy QAnon conspiracy maniacs:

“The Constitution of the United States had established March 4 as Inauguration Day, Trump will be our 19th President.”

She’s quite right. March 4 was indeed the Inauguration Date according to the original constitution. What these idiotic historians omitted was that the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 1933, changed the date from March 4 to January 20, to shorten the lame duck period of the presidency. With the hindsight of the election of a psychopath, the transition period of the presidency should have ended before the stink in the White House 

evaporated.

Another fact these conspiracy theorists choose to forget is that the president to be inaugurated is the person elected to the office in the November presidential election. 

That man was President Joe Biden, who was elected President by a popular vote majority of over seven million votes, and an Electoral College win with a majority of 74 delegates. Generally known as a landslide. An election that was confirmed by election officials across the nation, Democrat and Republican, and by district, federal courts and the Trump picked Supreme Court, who threw out 60 election fraud challenges by Trump’s lawyers as being completely lacking of a shred of evidence. Now you may wonder how these geniuses worked out that Trump was going to be the 19th President, and not the 46th, as Biden was inaugurated in January? The reason has to be heard to be laughed at. 

They believe that the United States was turned into a Corporation by the 16th Amendment in 1871, which allowed the federal government to impose taxes, and to go off the Gold Standard. There has been “no country known as the United States of America ever since it was unstuck from the Gold Standard” in 1871. All Amendments and elections after the 16th Amendment are therefore deemed to be illegal. They are deluded that Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President, from 1871 to 1877, was the last valid President of the United States. So, Donald Trump, who lost the election in November 2020, is the de jure 19th President. Go figure.

In spite of important legislation like the vote on the COVID Stimulus Package pending, Congress took the day off on Thursday. This is what the greatest, most powerful democracy in the world has been reduced to – the terror of violence by a defeated, disgraced president and his racist cult.

Nothing happened on 4 March. However, the beautiful Capitol and the other monuments which make Washington one of the most historically beautiful cities in the world will remain a fortress. An ugly reminder of the treason of 6 March, until the last strains and vestiges of the twin plagues of Trumpism and white racism are obliterated. 

The plague of Trump will, in spite of the current devotion of his cult, will be eliminated by the vaccine of his numerous financial and sexual crimes. And his cult will crawl back into the woodwork, the appropriate home for maggots – or should I say MAGAts? Of this, I am certain. 

Sandwiched between the insurrection of 6 January and the threat of 4 March was the Conservative Policy Action Conference (CPAC), a meeting of the Republican Party to work out their future political strategies. Instead, it turned out to be a rite of worship to Trump, the man who lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, lost the House of Representatives in 2018, lost the Senate and the White House in 2020. A festival for the greatest Loser in US history, complete with a full-size gold statue of a Cartoon Trump, wearing pants in the colours of Old Glory, waving a gold wand, and carrying a document he has ignored during his ill-starred presidency, the US Constitution. 

The Conference featured devotionals from the very lawmakers whose lives were threatened by the 6 January insurrection organised by Trump. Even his Vice President Mike Pence wrote an op-ed in the conservative Daily Signal that the November election was rigged by the Democrats. The election which he ratified even after the Trump thugs had built gallows, noose and all, to hang him.

The shroud was finally lifted at the CPAC. The Republican Party is now, openly, the Trump Cult.

History books in the future will determine whether the spell of Trump endures in spite of his failures because of the ambition of a few Republican politicians eyeing the 2024 presidency; or the death throes of white dominance; or fear for their lives which will be under serious threat by armed Trump thugs if they cross the Fuhrer. Perhaps a combination of all three. 

The USA, when it finally destroys the evil of violent racism that engulfs it today, will take its destined place at the head of enlightened, compassionate nations. The Grand Experiment, The Shining City on a Hill paraphrased by President Reagan from a parable of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as a ‘beacon of hope’ for the world, is a little late on arrival.