The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
The 2022 federal election will likely determine the major direction of the United States of America for at least the next six years. Most political pundits are predicting a Republican victory in both the House and Senate. If that happens, Donald Trump will probably be the Republican candidate for re-election as president, and the possible winner in 2024.
The results of that combination would place our nation in even greater danger than occurred on January 6, 2021. For a year and a half, the House January 6 Committee has investigated the events leading up to and following the attack on the Capitol. They have verified beyond reasonable doubt the carefully orchestrated attempt by Donald Trump to reverse the election of 2000.
Many high-ranking Republican officials who are not Members of Congress have testified before the committee about Trump’s malfeasance, but only a handful of elected GOP congressional members have done so. They fear election defeat if they speak out against the ex-president.
Die-hard rank-and-file Fox-Trump Republicans also refuse to acknowledge the peril of Trump’s failed coup. Since mid-January of last year, it is obvious that nearly every Republican member of Congress has obdurately chosen to ignore or deny the brazen illegality of the ex-president in the days leading up to the inauguration of Joe Biden as president.
Over a period of three days, from January 6 through the 8th, 2021, several powerful Republicans in Congress, notably including Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and Lindsey Graham, expressed deep concern regarding the actions of Mr. Trump before and after the riot at the Capitol. From that time on, though, the only Republican Congress members to affirm that Trump tried to engineer a coup were a handful of Republican Congress members who later chose not to run for re-election this year, including Adam Kinzinger, a member of the January 6 Committee. Liz Cheney is the only Republican who decided to try to retain her seat in the House, and she shortly will face a hotly contested primary race in Wyoming. It will be an ominous sign if she loses.
Every Democrat running for a seat in the House or Senate in November will either be competing against an incumbent Trump Republican or someone who is trying to become a new Trump Republican in Congress. What is the best strategy for these Democrats in the general election?
Because of inflation, a potentially looming recession, Ukraine, and other such dilemmas that defy rapid solutions, the best defense -- indeed the only feasible defense -- is a powerful offense. Democratic candidates for federal office must relentlessly attack Donald Trump and the abject failure of Trump Republicans to own up to the seditious events of the Capitol assault.
Republican candidates will naturally focus on the glaring and unavoidable problems currently facing our country and the world. In their campaigns, Democrats must hit hard at their opponents’ greatest weakness, which is the cowardice of the Trump Republican Party in admitting that collectively they tacitly backed the overthrow of a President duly and fairly elected by the American people in the election of 2020. They must remind voters of the spineless reversal of opinion quickly evidenced by McConnell, McCarthy, Graham and other Republicans, and by their own Republican opponents, if they are running against an incumbent.
There is no question of the complicity of nearly every Republican Member of Congress in the Trump coup attempt during and since January 6. Only those Republicans who voted for the first impeachment of Donald Trump also voted for his impeachment in his hasty second impeachment trial following January 6. These inactions have placed the nation in a uniquely precarious state.
Now Joe Biden and the Democrats must somehow capitalize on the anguish of those tumultuous days. Our country was almost thrust into an unelected autocracy by the machinations of Donald J. Trump. Democrats running for office must sound that alarm with an overwhelming drumbeat, or else many of them will surely lose their elections in November.
Therefore the first thing for Democrats to do is steadily to persist in asking their opponents what their attitude is toward the ex-president. Are they still on Trump’s side, or not? If they are, they must be forced into admitting it. As Liz Cheney eloquently indicated, the vast majority of elected Republicans currently are in the untenable position of defending the indefensible.
On the other hand, if Republican candidates refuse to state their opinion of the behavior of Mr. Trump during and since January 6, Democratic candidates need to press the point that their silence indicates their approval. Do not allow them to try to avert what they truly think of the ex-president’s failed sedition.
Hammer away at the peril that was represented by January 6. When Republican candidates cry, “It’s the economy, stupid!”, as they will surely do, Democrats must shout even louder, “No, it’s the failed coup attempt, Trumplicans!” Inflation and recessions come and go, but there has been only one effort to subvert Constitutional democracy by stealth, and it was led by Ex-President Donald Trump.
It will be a serious error of judgment for the Democratic Party to count on assistance from an indictment or conviction of Donald Trump prior to the 2022 election on November 8. The wheels of justice, especially as regards an ex-president accused of crimes, grind exceedingly slowly. Therefore it is up to Democrats to be relentless in their attacks on both Trump and the cowardly Republican Members of Congress following the most dangerous assault on the Constitution since 1861. Otherwise an amalgamation of negative economic news will sweep the Republicans back into total Congressional power.
- June 18, 2022
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.