The enemies of our enemies are our friends
Late Thursday, a prominent Republican lawmaker actually went out of his way to put his country ahead of his disintegrating political party. I’m going to take a minute or two to thank him for it, replete with the necessary caveats that any good-hearted liberal would ask to be injected into the writing.
This isn’t a love letter that the traitor, Donald Trump, would slavishly pen to some dictator, but a nod of appreciation for an ordinary act of Americana decency that nudges us just a little bit closer to the days of innocence before the catastrophic, slow-motion wreck in November of 2016 that left us battered and in shock.
Throughout this chaotic, dangerous period in American history, which has been defined by the lawlessness, treason, and the moral depravity of Trump’s Republican Party — and the slim Majority’s brave resistance to it — I have waited for lawmakers on the Right to say enough already, and start acting in America’s best longterm interests, instead of their own.
I contend that if our banged-up and bloodied Democracy is able to begin its recovery, it is incumbent that significant factions on all sides are able to come together and at the very least agree that the sanctity of our vote is unassailable, and those who attack our country, and that vote, must be punished.
It has frustrated me to the point of tears that during these brutal times so few Republicans have been able to muster enough decency to believe what is happening right in front of their eyes, while it ravages what is left of their tiny hearts.
If only they would finally say what has needed saying, we could begin to repair ourselves and walk as one to defeat what is most assuredly intent on finishing us off for good, the evil and ever-strengthening corporate oligarchy in this country, who are relentlessly picking the pockets of tens of millions Republicans and Democrats alike. They only get fatter by the day, while we batter ourselves bloody fighting for the most basic rights and subsistence.
For now, I will just settle for the odd Republican, who still knows truth from lies, and right from wrong.
Mitt Romney, once a Republican’s Republican if there ever was one, has been one of these people and has repeatedly said what’s needed saying about his party’s decline into the MAGA darkness. The Utah Senator put actions to his words by twice voting to impeach the ghastly, orange ghoul for his crimes against America.
I voted against Romney and for Barack Obama in 2012, but there was never one instance when I thought he would try to destroy this country if he lost. I’m not here to hand out medals or say I agree with Romney on most policy issues, but I am here to say we land on the same side when we are talking about love of country.
There have been damn few other Republicans who have spoken out and said and done the right things to help douse the flammable, right-wing rhetoric that has combusted into planned kidnappings of Democratic governors, killings, and ultimately an attack on our Capitol that left law enforcement officers dead and wounded in its fiery wake … a shaken nation sifting through the ashes.
Many of them, like Chris Christie, have waited until they were turned out of office or set aside by their revolting party like yesterday’s garbage to finally stand up and speak for what is most assuredly right. The sincerity of their words will always be jeopardized by their terrible inaction.
The bipartisan January 6th Committee Hearings featured scores of Republicans, including the malleable former Attorney General Bill Barr, who either in public testimony or deposition, finally grudgingly lined up on the side of getting it right, after intentionally getting it completely wrong for so long.
Damn few have actually been in office when they attempted to put steel to their slurry words, which takes me back to Thursday afternoon and Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
I’m not sure I could last more than two minutes hashing out any political hot-button issues with the man before my brain melted, but when it comes to the subject of protecting our democracy from those who would so willingly destroy it, he’s now got an unlikely ally.
I guess Kemp had finally heard enough of his party’s disgusting, and threatening attacks on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and got behind the loudest microphone in the Peach State Thursday to put a stop to it before it spiraled completely out of control.
We know from January 6, 2021 at our Capitol, and August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, what happens when heated, MAGA rhetoric falls on the wrong ears.
Kemp took to the lectern in the Georgia statehouse, and loudly and publicly rejected Georgia Republican Sen. Colton Moore, and other flat-busted Republicans on the State Legislature, to call a special session to punish and remove Willis for having the patriotic sense of duty to prosecute Tump and his 18 co-defendants on charges that they conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in their state.
Here was Moore earlier this week on an episode of the revolting Steve Bannon’s War Room:
“We need to be taking action right now, because if we don’t, our constituents are going to be fighting in the streets. Do you want a civil war? I don’t want a civil war. I don’t want to have to draw my rifle. I want to make this problem go away with my legislative means of doing so, and the first step to getting that done is defunding Fani Willis.”
That is called absolutely disgusting, and a threat against Willis’s life if I’ve ever heard it. It has also become just another day in the life of this noxious Republican Party.
Thankfully, the Republican, Kemp, was done with Moore’s dangerous bluster and compared it to similar GOP calls in 2020 to pull together a special session to overturn Trump’s election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden:
“Fast forward to today, nearly three years later, memories are fading fast,” Kemp said. “There have been calls by one individual (Moore) in the General Assembly and echoed outside of these walls by the former president (Trump) for a special session that would ignore current Georgia law and directly interfere with the proceedings of a separate but equal branch of government.”
He continued:
"As long as I am governor, we’re going to follow the law and the Constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically. In Georgia, we will not be engaging in political theater that only inflames the emotions of the moment. We will do what is right. We will uphold our oath to public service. And it is my belief that our state will be better off for it."
Now you can say that this is the very least Kemp could have done to put down such overt threats of violence and anarchy. You can say that he is a shrewd political operator who understands if not for Trump, it is very possible that thanks to Georgia, Republicans, not Democrats, would have a majority in the U.S. Senate right now. You can say he’s smart enough to know that in a state like Georgia, which is politically split right down the middle, victories are won by winning that middle.
You can say all that, and I’ll agree with you, which makes Kemp’s actions no less important, while at the same time highlighting how completely bizarre it is that more Republicans aren’t doing the exact same thing.
There’s real irony in the fact that because of the anti-Democratic Electoral College, Democrats might one day find themselves in real trouble if Republicans can ever figure out, as Democrats long have, that doing what’s best for their party, and what’s best for their country aren’t mutually exclusive.
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough)