RIP, the GOP of ‘Personal Responsibility’

I have always believed in personal responsibility and I heard much bloviating about in during my days in the Republican Party.  Ditto for the mantra that character matters and that in order to hold office politicians should be oh good moral character - this was especially true with the Christofascists who infiltrated and then took over the GOP base.  The latter, of course, was thrown down the toilet when the GOP embraced Donald Trump and the former has been fully discarded over the last few days as Republicans in Congress have closed their eyes to their own culpability in setting the stage for the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021.  Yes, there are the Senate members of the insurrection caucus, but there are also 126 members of the House that signed onto the Texas Attorney General's frivolous lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. These and others have spouted endless lies fanning the resentment of the deplorables who now dominate the GOP base, yet none want to accept responsibility for their own handiwork.   All who peddled lies and untruths must be held accountable and driven from office as argued by a column ion the Washington Post:

What ever happened to the “personal responsibility” we’ve so often heard Republicans prattle on about?

Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Ted Cruz (Tex.) and others aided and abetted our authoritarian president, amplifying his lies about voter fraud. White House officials and their confederates in right-wing media have thoroughly brain-poisoned the GOP base, claiming that shadowy forces stole the 2020 election. In so doing, these quislings all helped foment the insurrectionist storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

They should man up and own it.

And yet for their role in Wednesday’s seditious acts, not a whit of personal responsibility is anywhere to be found. In a video released Thursday evening, President Trump claimed to be “outraged” by the mob he himself had beset upon the Capitol. “It is not your fault. It is their fault” came the appalling apologia of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, with the ambiguous “their” seemingly referring to Democrats. Cruz more explicitly blamed random Democrats. Other right-wing personalities and Republican leaders claim the attempted coup was really the work of far-left antifa, even though Capitol rioters were on camera chanting “Trump” and “Stop the Steal” and carrying the Confederate flag.

Nearly half (45 percent) of Republican survey respondents said they approve of the storming of the Capitol, a YouGov snap poll found. Yet this same poll found that most Republicans also blame President-elect Joe Biden for this (totally acceptable and good!) American carnage.

Let’s review the tape.

Donald Trump warned his fellow partisans that he would try to hold on to the presidency by force if necessary. In the months before Election Day, he repeatedly declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, instead pledging “there won’t be a transfer.”

With rare exceptions — such as Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) — Republicans asked about these comments usually refused to directly condemn them.

Some, such as former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), shrugged off such openly banana-republican remarks, insisting that although Trump “says crazy stuff,” the president would of course concede gracefully if he lost. Sometimes allies, such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), pivoted to talking about judges. Sometimes they even egged Trump on: The day after the president said there wouldn’t be a transfer of power, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted: “In the spring, stores sold out of hand sanitizer and toilet paper. This fall, they sold out of ammo.”

When, in December, Post reporters asked all 249 sitting Republican lawmakers who had won the presidential election, 220 refused to answer.

Things soon devolved. As it became clearer that the base had bought into Trump’s conspiracy theories, and believed the election had been “stolen,” Republicans transitioned from merely ignoring this mass paranoia to fanning the flames.

Republican officials claimed they were merely asking questions about the election system’s integrity. There’s so much distrust that they had to investigate now! Never mind that Trump and other GOP cranks had sown the distrust themselves. No matter that dozens of court cases about these “questions” had been thrown out — including by Trump-appointed judges.

They announced plans to object to election results in states Biden had won. Some even explicitly advocated use of force, with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) saying after an unfavorable court ruling that “violence in the streets” might be the only option left to prevent Biden’s inauguration.

Not all of their followers understood these cosplay coup attempts to be purely performative.

Then on Wednesday, politicians cheered on the bloodthirsty D.C. crowds who might someday donate to their 2024 campaigns. Trump was already fundraising oodles off his “Stop the Steal” grift; why shouldn’t they, as well? Indeed, just as insurrectionists were storming the Capitol, both Cruz and Hawley campaigns sent out fundraising texts.

These arrogant demagogues thought they were merely playing to the mob, as they’ve been doing for the past four years. It apparently never occurred to them that the mob might someday come for them, too.

And now they have the gall to blame antifa, Democrats, Biden? Take some responsibility for what you’ve done.

If Republicans will not voluntarily accept accountability, then the ballot box must force it upon them. Name, shame and eject all these traitors from office.