Now we see the rats leaving the sinking ship. DeVos, Chao, Grisham, Mulvaney, Pottinger, Niceta, Matthews, Costello, and others “bravely” making a stand with two weeks to go to the handover. It’s a bit late for them to wake up to the fact that Trump has been stoking the fires of fear and hatred in his more fanatical followers for the whole of his term. Great damage has already been done to the country and its reputation and it will take more than good intentions and platitudes to fix it.
The Republicans must put their house in order and make sure that other would-be autocratic leaders don’t follow in Trump’s footsteps. He has blazed a trail but fortunately was too stupid and lazy to take complete advantage of the power he appropriated, next time someone with more intelligence could wreak even greater harm.
In the meantime Trump, like the coward he is, prepares to avoid handing the baton to his successor by refusing to attend the inauguration and instead to sneak off like a thief in the night to his home in Florida; thus preventing the embarrassment of him and Melania handing the White House over to Joe and Jill Biden.
But instead of allowing Trump’s misdeeds and behavior to go unpunished Congress should stand up to him and invoke the 25th amendment. If Senators don’t have the stomach for that, I sincerely hope that he is at least impeached again, even though it will be only a gesture, but it would at least show that Congress does not support his despicable behavior and it will be a further stain on his already much-besmirched character.
Kudos to Facebook for imposing a lengthy ban on his accounts and black marks to Twitter for not having the fortitude to do the same. His accounts should be closed permanently in recognition of the blatant lies he tells and the dog whistles he sends to his rabid pack of supporters. If he is allowed to continue to spout lies and foment unrest, more violence will follow and the partisanship that is dividing the country will become worse.
Perhaps, once he becomes the ex-president, he will be brought to account in the courts for his misdeeds, but that may be too much to hope for?
