Trump wasn’t alone
“On January 7, Marc Thiessen wrote an article in the Spokesman-Review titled, “This is all Trump’s fault,” attempting to place the responsibility for the previous day’s insurrection in Washington, D.C., solely on the president. He ignores the other responsible party.
In four years, as the head of his political party, President Trump experienced no measurable pushback from the leaders of his party when he lied or belittled people using racist and inflammatory language. The Republican Party’s lie that the election had been stolen from President Trump perpetrated a catastrophic fraud on their voters which continued right up to the day of the insurrection.
While President Trump pulled the trigger, the Republican Party gave him the gun and ammunition. The Republican leadership in the House and Senate has permitted this president to significantly damage this country because they were getting what they wanted from their president.The evangelical wing of the party got their anti-choice judges, the business wing got over $1 trillion in permanent tax cuts and the growing White Nationalist movement got the “wink and a nod” they needed to creep out of the shadows, all in exchange for support of the Republican Party.
President Trump did not do these things by himself. The enablers and apologists who pass for leaders in the modern Republican Party tolerated and encouraged this president’s worst instincts and egregious behavior for short term political gain.
We will soon have a new president. What we need next is a new Republican Party.”
Thomas P. Robinson
Spokane