Well, I think we can dispense with the word “grand” now.
Perhaps I was being naïve when I watched the January 6 insurrection by Donald Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on TV and thought certainly there would be resounding bipartisan condemnation and outrage at this horrific event. Surely, I thought, everyone sees that this has gone too far.
The days to come would prove me wrong.
In addition to being disheartened and angry at the GOP’s gaslighting and excuse-making on the national level, I waited to see if local Howard County Republican leaders would denounce the insurrection and Donald Trump’s role in it. They did not. District 5 County Councilman David Yungmann, known to be a Trump supporter, said nothing publicly on the topic, nor did District 9A State Delegate Reid Novotny, who recently replaced the also-silent Warren Miller. A member and former chair of the Republican Central Committee posted photos on Facebook that showed her participating in the “Stop the Steal” rally and actually celebrated the insurrection as it was in progress. And it took a solid week for the RCC to release a weak-sauce statement attributing the insurrection to a “few bad actors” in an otherwise peaceful, swastika-festooned protest before making a plea for justice – not for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died from injuries inflicted by insurrectionists, but for Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by law enforcement while attempting to break into the Speaker’s Lobby.
There was only one outlier. The Baltimore Sun published a letter from former Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman, in which he joined with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to condemn the violence at the Capitol and ask for Trump’s resignation, and he wisely noted the need for change in the Republican Party. He was subsequently jeered and called a “RINO” on the Howard County GOP Facebook page.
Well.
Given the awful upheaval the country has endured thanks to four years of Donald Trump, the Republican Party has now found itself powerless, without control of the White House, the Senate, or the House of Representatives. They are the party of the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. As former Executive Kittleman rightfully pointed out, the party is at a crossroads. What can we expect to see out of the Republican Party now?
More of the same, it would seem. Councilman Yungmann, who campaigned in 2018 on his opposition to a mosque in western Howard County, announced his re-election bid for 2022 this week with a Trumpian Facebook post opposing sanctuary protections for immigrants and instilling fear of the suburbs being overrun with low-income housing. The RCC – who selected Warren Miller’s replacement in the state legislature – consists of QAnon conspiracy pushers and anti-Muslim xenophobes. Nationally, relatively few GOP members of Congress supported Trump’s impeachment; many expressed a desire to sweep this under the rug in the name of “unity,” and more than a few others pledged their undying fealty to Donald Trump.
The GOP is indeed at a crossroads. Will they condemn the destruction wrought on democracy by their own party’s actions, or will they double down on hate and extremism?
The GOP hitched its wagon to the Death Star – and now they have work to do.