Each president has been met by his fair share of hair-on-fire critics claiming he is destroying the country as we know it.
There was certainly no shortage of Adolf Hitler comparisons during both the Bush and Obama presidencies. These assessments, though, have always been hyperbole – the product of America’s hyper-polarized political environment.
Until the end of time, extremists on both sides of the aisle will paint presidents they don’t agree with as clear and present dangers to U.S. democracy. They’ll storm Washington, hold protests and claim the sky is falling, though it almost never is.
Right now, though, there is nothing hyperbolic about the alarms being raised about Donald Trump. This man must be stopped.
The sky really is falling.
The problem, of course, is that it can’t just be Democrats saying so. Republicans, too, must start to acknowledge that Donald Trump’s crusade to save himself is having the reverse effect on American institutions.
“President Trump has single-handedly done more to undermine the basic tenets of American democracy than any foreign agent or foreign propaganda campaign could,” Thomas Edsall wrote last year in The New York Times.
Since then, this president has refused to stop digging even after many thought he had hit rock bottom. As the special counsel investigation continues to tighten around him, Trump has traded his shovel for a drill rig.
Almost on a daily basis, he undermines American law enforcement agencies, seeks to obstruct criminal investigations, wages all out war on the free press and spreads provable lies to his blindfolded supporters.
Much damage has already been done during this self-survival mission, and it will take years to undo. But before it becomes irreversible, Republicans must do what they haven’t in the Trump era: Put America first.
That begins by passing legislation to protect Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation. This is a no-brainer as Trump continues to hint that he’ll remove Mueller, or fire deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
Even if the president doesn’t cross the red line and fire Mueller, the GOP has a responsibility to speak out when Trump smears him and the investigation as he did this week.
The same applies to Trump’s fresh attacks on former FBI director James Comey and the agency Comey once led.
James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
….untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2018
The new GOP website meant to smear Comey and protect Trump is an abomination, particularly for a party that helped Trump campaign on his ridiculous “law and order” platform.
It should go without saying that the Republican Party needs to ax this propaganda page immediately.
Comey – a Republican – may have been a thorn in the side of both parties at one point or another throughout his career, particularly during the 2016 campaign, but he has more character and integrity than Trump or his cronies could ever imagine having.
Republicans must act before Trump’s damage becomes irreversible
Each day, too many so-called leaders in the Republican Party remain silent or even provide cover for the president as he continues to wage his self-centered war on America’s institutions and norms.
The damage Trump has already done – in particular, undermining America’s law enforcement and intelligence community and painting the fact-based media as the enemy – will take years to reverse. If the GOP doesn’t act now, it could become impossible for the U.S. to fully recover.
As New York Times opinion columnist Charles Blow wrote this week: “In Trump’s mind, I can only imagine, he has settled on a strategy in the case of his own administration’s Armageddon: If he’s going down, the whole system is going down with him.”
Republicans have a choice: They can continue to watch – and help – this president hurt America in order to retain his political power, or they can put a stop to it.
As Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on Thursday, “The world is watching.”
So is history.
If the GOP wants to be on the right side of it, they’ll wake up and stop Donald Trump before it’s too late.
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