For Moral Republicans It’s Time to Exit the GOP

Over the last four years or more I have argued that one cannot be a decent and moral person and be member of Trump's Republican Party.  The two are mutually exclusive and to my Republican friends who seem to care only about lower taxes, is the desire for lower taxes sufficient to justify throwing morality down the toilet?  This holds particularly true for Republicans who are practicing Christians trying to be true to Christ's message - which exclude evangelicals - while voting for a party that now stands for open white supremacy, fascism, and hatred of others. Stop the hypocrisy of going to church if you are going to support the Republican Party, the party that literally put children in cages.  After the sacking of the U.S. Capitol by members of Trump's base - which is the base of today's GOP - moral Republicans who have heretofore tried to look the other way should be fleeing to exit the GOP.  A column in the Washington Post by a former Republican makes this case.  Here are highlights:

Readers know that for a couple of years, I have argued that the Republican Party failed the test of character and decency when it embraced President Trump and, therefore, should be leveled. The insurrection this past week highlights how essential it is to leave a party that is now thoroughly infested with neo-Nazi, racist, anti-Semitic and lawless elements.

It is no surprise that several Republican state elected officials have been identified as having participated in Wednesday’s riot. The Associated Press reports: “[West Virginia] State Del. Derrick Evans was among lawmakers from at least seven states who traveled to Washington, D.C., for demonstrations rooted in the baseless conspiracy theory that Democrat Joe Biden stole the presidential election.

The involvement of so many elected Republicans not simply in perpetuating the lie of a stolen election but in participating in a deadly event in which anti-Semitic, pro-Confederate thugs roamed the halls of Congress is horrifying, but predictable. The rioters on Capitol Hill — even before committing a slew of crimes — were decked in neo-Nazi/ and racist regalia. They refused to allow democracy to take its course. This was the band elected officials joined or supported.

Robert P. Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute, writes:

There were crosses, “Jesus Saves” signs and “Jesus 2020” flags that mimicked the design of the Trump flags. . . . Comfortably intermingled with Christian rhetoric and these Christian icons were explicit symbols of white supremacy. . . . . At least one protester sported a “Camp Auschwitz” hoodie, a reference to a concentration camp where over 1 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, even as others made outlandish comparisons between Christians as victims of American society and European Jews in the Third Reich.

This is Trump’s Republican Party. It is also the party for and of evangelical Christians, whose worldview, Jones writes, is intertwined with racism. “This seditious mob was motivated not just by loyalty to Trump, but by an unholy amalgamation of white supremacy and Christianity that has plagued our nation since its inception and is still with us today.

The notion that the Republican Party can be separated from the mob is nonsensical. The mob is the party’s base.

Republicans, including House and Senate members, have a choice: Associate and co-exist with this Republican Party, or leave. When 147 House members object to electoral college votes, it is impossible to excise the threat. The threat is the majority of the House Republicans. The option is to stay or leave.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) should roll out the welcome mat for Murkowski and any other Republicans who can no longer tolerate to be in a party with insurrectionists and those who cheer them on, including Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Murkowski hit the nail on the head: A party that harbors those characters is no place for her.

Murkowski, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and others in what we might call the “Sanity Caucus” should applaud the call from Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) for ringleaders Hawley and Cruz to resign.

The party isn’t going to change, so it might be time for some Republicans to head for the exits. They might find a whole lot of familiar faces on the way out.