(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Maybe some people just don’t have a conscience.

Donald Trump supporters - whose zeal often rivals those who follow Jesus - continue to look the other way after four years of his mostly unconscionable behaviour, even after he promoted a coup d’état.

I guess when you incite an insurrection against what many once considered the world’s greatest democracy - killing five people - based on a lie that your election was stolen...well, it’s still not a bridge too far for most Republicans.

Oh, sure...some Republican Senators and Representatives have publicly asked President Trump to resign...but precious few. A couple of Cabinet members - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao - resigned with two weeks left in the Administration. I guess the first 206 weeks were somehow more bearable.

Some did prove they were more American than Republican after the attempted coup by resigning immediately, including Special Envoy to Northern Ireland and former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney; along with Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser; John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce; Tyler Goodspeed, White House Council of Economic Adviser; Stephanie Grisham, the First Lady’s Chief of Staff; The First Lady’s Social Secretary, Rickie Niceta and Sarah Matthews, White House Deputy Press Secretary.

But make no mistake, most of Trump’s supporters and certainly his accomplices in the White House and Cabinet, don’t deserve even a scintilla of our respect. They have - for four long years - served not the interests of America...not the Constitution that many swore an oath to support...but an agenda desired by a minority of citizens...and, of course, their own greedy self-interests.

I have - for four years - in scores of opinion columns cautioned people on the evils of Donald Trump and how dangerous this despot is not only to America, but the entire world. I stand by each and very column...each and every word...and regret nothing said about Trump or his supporters.

Donald Trump has always been unfit to serve as president. He’s sexually assaulted women by the dozen. He’s told more than 30,000 lies publicly...and no doubt tens of thousands more in private. He’s a proven racist. Everyone should have been able to see what was coming all this time. I wasn’t kidding when I wrote two years ago about a second U.S. Civil War. 

But Republican officials and most of those registered as members of the Republican Party didn’t just stand idly by these four years...they embraced this sorry excuse for both a president and a man. He has shown nothing but contempt for democracy, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Rule of Law...simple decency.

But Republicans are always there for Donald Trump. No matter what...Charlottesville, the Comey firing, standing alongside Vladimir Putin in Helsinki denying Russian interference in America’s election, the sham of not voting to remove him from office after being impeached, ignoring his separating babies from their parents at the Mexican border...and his incompetence with the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans unnecessarily.

Trump is a sociopath...a pathetic human being...and these are shameful Republicans. You cannot feel any other way about them. If you do...take a deep, deep look inside yourself.

And then, if you have any doubt consider what really happened Wednesday, Jan. 6, on live television, as the entire world watched President Donald Trump incite his supporters to riot...to storm the Capital. And liar as always, he told the crowd that he would walk with them to the Capitol. He, of course, did not join them. He returned to the White House with family and other sycophants and cheered what would - at the end of the day - be felons. But Trump knew they would do his bidding...he leads the cult...and they worship him.

I lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for six years...often choosing to walk through the Capitol on the way from my house to my office simply because it meant so much to me...a symbol of democracy. It is so much more than a building. This attempted coup raises many questions.

How is it that the Capitol was so poorly defended...on a day that even a rookie cop might expect trouble? Did Trump - in mob fashion - put the word out to Homeland Security to “stand back and standby?” How did insurrectionists know where unmarked offices of Democrats and Republicans were in the Capitol?

Consider the unequal treatment under the Trump rule. Nearly 300 Black Lives Matter protesters last Summer were arrested...in a truly peaceful protest in Washington, D.C. Three years ago, Senator Raphael Warnock - then a black pastor from Georgia - was arrested in the Capitol Rotunda for praying!

But a racist mob - carrying Confederate flags, some wearing anti-Semitic t-shirts, some wearing “Jesus” shirts and carrying Evangelical signs, shouting, “Hang Mike Pence!” - was allowed to storm the Capitol?

Most Republicans are willing - rather than forcing Trump to resign, invoke the 25th Amendment or impeach and remove him - to see taxpayers give him $200,000 a year for life, pay $1 million a year in travel expenses for life, pay for Secret Service protection for life, pay office and staff expenses for life.

Millions of Americans like me treasure democracy...we served our country in the military...and we are sickened by the inaction of Republicans...the failures of Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz...and, of course, Medal of Freedom recipients Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.

In 1945, people who dismissed Hitler’s atrocities for a decade finally faced the truth when Nazi death camps were overrun by Allied troops and freed Jewish survivors. It was too late for six million souls.

What will it take today, America? Who among you needs more proof? Trump mobs storming the Capitol again, or the White House or the Supreme Court, with grenades and semi-automatic weapons, killing real patriots?

I’ve asked for four years, when are Republicans going to admit Trump’s failings and their own. Still no good answers. Apparently, the straw that breaks one camel’s back...just doesn’t bother another’s.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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