DERELICTION AS GOVERNANCE

Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas. We know this is going to be a rough year for the American psyche. As much as we would like to tune out and go about our lives in uninformed bliss, that would not be civically responsible. And right now, at this time, it is also dangerous. What we’re reading… GOP Presidential frontrunner refuses to do what should be a given, to sign a traditional pro-forma oath attesting to “not directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States or of this state or any unlawful change in the form of the governments thereof by force or any unlawful means.” At least one GOP House member will not commit to certifying the 2024 election results. And a 100+ more that attempted the same thing in 2020 are up for re-election. And this same Rep, obviously interviewing for a VP slot, promotes the current campaign tactic of portraying the January 6 violence as the work of true patriots, imprisoned insurgents should be pardoned, that immigrants are indeed poisoning the blood our country, and all other bogus, damaging things that come out of the mouth of one she hopes to further serve. Even the Speaker of the House refuses to say that Biden was legitimately elected. These people are either morally corrupt, disingenuous in their political pursuits, zealots, or plain crazy. And yet they run the country. It’s sickening. More news keeps coming out on Trump’s actions, or lack thereof, on January 6. His closest aides have revealed how his anger on that day kept him glued to the TV, lost in his own fantasy that somehow the violence was going to take him back to the Oval Office. He did nothing. He did nothing because what he wanted to happen, was. When notified his VP had been rushed to safety he said, “So what?” Combating this type of unacceptable behavior put forth as leadership requires hearing from trusted authority figures in politics, faith, culture or civil society. What it takes is courage. Courage to stand up. To do the right thing, regardless of political consequences. And therein lies the problem. Compliance, complicity, condoning, and cowardice are rampant. Courage remains a unicorn. The Republican Party and its lack of leadership, with its fealty to a badly damaged demigod that has zero regard for the country he wants to run, has brought us to this place. Without a whimper. And with such willingness that there must have been little true belief in anything other than power and how to keep it. It wasn’t a battle for the soul of the GOP. It was offered to a bully, gladly, on a golden platter, with a “Please sir, may I have some more?” And your response so far? So what. Maybe you and your guy aren’t so different after all.