In comparing Republicans and Democrats, one is reminded of the remark by the American humorist, Will Rogers who said in 1928,“I’m not a member of any organized political party — I’m a Democrat”. Even now, while a joke, this observation makes sense whereas it would seem ridiculous applied to the Republicans. And what was true back a hundred years ago has become many times more so under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. Today the Republican party speaks with near unanimity.
During the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy (R., Wis.) made a name for himself stirring up and exploiting the fear and hatred of communism. The demise of McCarthy began in 1950 when Maine’s Republican Senator, Margaret Chase Smith made a memorable speech on the Senate floor denouncing her colleague:
“It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques — techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life”.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon was being investigated by special prosecutor Archibald Cox who had been hired by Attorney General Eliot Richardson. On a Saturday night, Richardson received a call from Nixon demanding that Cox be fired forthwith. Richardson refused the President’s direct order and resigned as did his second in command at the Justice Department, William Ruckelshaus (the next in line, Robert Bork complied).Both men were, and still are, considered patriots for refusing to implement Nixon’s order.
One member of Congress who did stand up to Donald Trump was Liz Cheney, the former Republican Congresswoman from Wyoming and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.An orthodox, conservative Republican congresswoman, she attacked President Trump during and after the 2020 election for trying to overthrow the election, thus triggering the enmity of a large portion of her House colleagues and Wyoming Republicans . She became vice chairman of The U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6th attack. Her performance on the Committee won her national acclaim but she was defeated in her re-election primary receiving only 29% of the Republican vote.
The tripartite division of power in our federal government was designed to provide stability by limiting the power of the executive, to prevent a future president from assuming unintended powers. However, over time authority seems to have shifted to the executive branch.
More and more, members of Congress are unwilling to take positions that do not closely conform to those of their party’s leadership. This is less true of Democrats who have a long tradition or independence. Republicans, on the other hand, have become ever more controlled by their authoritarian President.
Republican members of Congress havebeen totally silent about Trump andhis administration’s contempt for the law. A few notable examples include usurpation of the Congressional prerogative to levy tariffs, the sending of the military into American cities, the destruction of a boat full of Venezuelans in international waters, and the reckless misbehavior of ICE officers, one of which involved arresting and illegally deportingindividuals to an El Salvador prison and refusing to correct this error. Such illegal acts are happening regularly. But not a single Republican official has stood up to denounce or even question these events. Do they really think such moves are OK?
On September 30, President Trump brought back from all over the world some 800 of the nation’s highest ranking military leaders to a military base in Virginia to hear him give an extremely partisan political speech attacking ”radical leftists” and describing major American cities as “war zones” and telling the military leaders to “use US cities as training grounds”. Despite the illegality of the president’s sending troops into US cities and the total opposition of the various state and local leaders involved, the only member of congress to speak out against the sending of the military to our cities has been Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island; no Republican has spoken up; are they all cyphers?
During Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Tax bill” formulation in Congress, Republican legislators hardly ever spoke of it lest ordinary citizens realize how favorable it was to the wealthy and how health and other programs were being cut to pay for it. The same with many business deductions and other favors. The vote in the Senate on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill was 51-50 with the Vice-president’s vote breaking the tie.
Despite her fervent opposition, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) cast the deciding vote after pressure from her colleagues and the White House. In the House, only 2 very conservative republicans voted against it, both because theywere against increasing the national debt. But had Senator Murkowski voted against the Bill, it might have been revised in a more bi-partisan way, likely avoiding the current shutdown of the federal government.
Architect and landscape designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.
