Important to note this didn’t happen because of a bipartisan commitment to seeing Trump supporting Republicans returned to normalcy through their belated rejection of authoritarianism outweighing the commitment to a democracy and rules to enforce them laid out during Reconstruction.
Trump and the majority of the Republican Party should’ve been barred from office at the least. This case should’ve been made forcefully and without caveats. Instead we got years of “well maybe DeSantis/Haley/Youngkin/Hogan” can wind them back down and paeans to bipartisanship.
Avoiding this was already a preemptive surrender to Trump’s barely veiled threats of political violence, and silent acknowledgment of the hierarchical value placed on the Republican base over the broad coalition in favor of multiracial democracy.
and that’s the part that’s really galling. The end of US democracy being used as a disciplining tool to quell any criticism from the left from the very people who were only committed to seeing it continue in a way that clearly privileges one set of voters over everyone else.
Back the blue, shut down the border, and be silent about Gaza because democracy is on the line while offering endless olive branches and mewling retorts to the people loudly proclaiming their aim to wrecking the shit.
