Why No GOP Senator Will Stand Up to Trump
I don't fully agree with the why exactly, but we are experiencing something again that has happened before, this time, it's much worse; much, much worse. The historical value of this article is useful, though.
So, that's what that awful SMELL is. Whew! What a malodorous stench emanates from the GOP now. It's nauseating to say the least and very corrosive, to boot.
At the end for Richard Nixon, after all the mounting evidence in the Watergate scandal, after both special prosecutors, after all the White House indictments, after the guilty pleas, after the obstruction efforts fell apart, after all the court fights, after all the damaging revelations in outlets like the Washington Post, Time and the Los Angeles Times, after all the impeachment hearings, it all came down to Barry Goldwater.
It’s easy, nearly 50 years after Watergate, to forget that Nixon’s ignominious departure from the White House was hardly a foregone conclusion. The Republican Party had stuck closely with Nixon even through the darkest days of the Watergate scandal; even as its lawmakers whispered behind closed doors about his guilt and even as public opinion polls showed Nixon dragging down their party, they had toughed it out—past the indictments of his top aides, past the courts batting back one attempt at obstruction after another, even after Nixon’s attacks on and ultimate firing of the special prosecutor targeting him.
It wasn’t until August 6, 1974, at the regular Senate Republican Conference lunch that Barry Goldwater fumed to his colleagues: “There are only so many lies you can take, and now there has been one too many. Nixon should get his ass out of the White House—today!”
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That loyalty from the base to Nixon had caused the GOP to stand strong in the face of Watergate, even as the news worsened, the indictments piled up, and the “smell” worsened. The most loyal even created the National Citizens’ Committee for Fairness to the Presidency (NCCFP), the day’s equivalent of a super PAC, to promote the president’s defense in ads.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/22/trump-impeachment-watergate-barry-goldwater-101836
= new reply since forum marked as read
are fully aware that Trump is a terrible person and a terrible, dangerous president - yet with that knowledge, and in the face of clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors and statutory crimes and all manner of corruption, they continue to protect him because their Senate seats are that important to them. These are almost all wealthy people (it's hard to get to the Senate without some money behind you); they could find jobs anywhere if they even needed them, but they are so hooked on being Senators that they are willing to sell the Senate, their country, and their own reputations down the river just so some yahoo from their state's backwaters won't primary them.
