Nor can there be any doubt that the Republicans are likely to obtain majorities in both the Senate and the House in the mid-term elections to be held in November. Even so, they have an additional problem, quite apart from Trump’s probable unelectability – namely, his vindictive determination to destroy all those Republican politicians who he believes, quite correctly, prevented his attempted coup from succeeding.
Not only has Trump publically denounced Pence and McConnell and others, but he is actively campaigning to disendorse a number of sitting Republican senators and congressmen, including the 10 who voted to impeach him.
It is this curious circumstance – namely, that Trump poses a serious threat to both the Democratic and Republican parties – that opens up the possibility of a bipartisan compromise designed to destroy his political influence forever. And there are now indications that such a compromise – driven primarily by the political self-interest of both major parties – may be taking place.
The Democrats have launched an unprecedented full-scale attack on Trump’s legitimacy focusing on the attempted coup, that commenced with Biden’s very forceful January 6 anniversary speech, in which he accused Trump of “putting a dagger to the throat of democracy” and “creating a web of lies about the 2020 election.”
Most Republicans remained silent or very muted in their criticism of Biden, and mainstream Republicans are now clearly content to stand by while the Democrats continue to attack Trump on this issue.
But in a recent article in the Washington Post, Pence described Trump’s actions on January 6 as a “power grab,” while characterising Biden’s electoral reform legislation in precisely the same way.
More ominously for Trump, Republican politicians and staffers are now co-operating with the Select Committee investigation – in order, no doubt, to covertly assist in bringing about the former president’s downfall.
This week ,Trump’s former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, who resigned on January 6 last year, testified that he held a number of secret meetings at the White House in the lead-up to the riot. Three of Pence’s senior staff members have already testified, and Pence himself appears likely to give evidence in closed session in the near future. The Select Committee has also recently asked a number of Republican congressmen to appear before it.
Pence and others who have alienated Trump have little to lose by testifying – after all, they have no future in any Trump-led Republican Party. It is likely, too, that Pence may be motivated by a potential run at the presidency himself in 2024.
It is already clear that the findings of the Select Committee will be damning of Trump and his coup supporters, and may well result in criminal charges being brought against those involved by the Justice Department. The Select Committee has already accumulated a great deal of evidence, including thousands of documents – the vast majority of it not yet made public – and will commence televised prime time daily hearings shortly. The parallels with the Watergate hearings – that did so much to finally destroy Richard Nixon’s credibility and support – are obvious.
There is little doubt that the committee will have the support of the Supreme Court throughout its inquiry – especially the three Trump appointees, who will presumably be anxious to give the lie to the suggestion that they are on the court to do his bidding. This was dramatically confirmed this week when the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s claim for executive privilege in respect of White House documents relating to the events surrounding the riot, with only Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.
Trump’s cancellation of a speech that he planned to give on the anniversary of the riot suggests that even he may have belatedly come to realise his support for those involved seriously damaged his political credibility. His dilemma, though, is that he cannot back away from his support for the rioters without alienating his voter base. When he recently tried to hypocritically pose as a champion of Covid vaccination at an event in Dallas, his mostly rabid anti-vaxxer supporters actually booed him.
Any bipartisan compromise will involve the Democrats meekly accepting their losses in the upcoming mid-term elections, together with the probable election of a Republican president – other than Trump – in 2024. This means that Biden’s entire legislative program will effectively be put on hold – including, most importantly, his voting rights legislation – and traditional conservative Republicans will control American politics for the foreseeable future. This is perhaps a relatively small price to pay for the elimination of Trump from the scene and the preservation of liberal democracy.
US political history also suggests that a compromise of this kind is very likely. The infamous disputed presidential election of 1876 created an acute political crisis for the American political system. Congress was deadlocked for months, until a compromise was reached between the Republican Party leadership and Southern Democrats.
The Democrats allowed the nondescript Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, to become president – and in return, the Republicans agreed to dismantle reconstruction in the South, and give Southern Democrats carte blanche to disenfranchise southern blacks and introduce the odious Jim Crow regime.
African Americans paid a terrible price for this political compromise – one that has haunted US politics ever since. Nevertheless, the immediate political crisis was averted, and liberal democracy (albeit, in a debauched, racially discriminatory form) survived. Republican and Democrat political elites brokered a similar compromise at the end the Watergate crisis, whereby Republican leaders forced the disgraced President Nixon to resign, thereby ending that ongoing political debacle.
It cannot be disputed that Donald Trump has created an acute political crisis for American liberal democracy. His actions following his election loss in 2020 have shocked many politicians from both parties – some of whom bear responsibility for empowering him in the first place – as well as a significant segment of the American people. It is to be hoped that political compromise is now being put in place that will bring about Trump’s political demise, and restore the basic integrity of the American political system – insofar as that is possible – at least for the immediate future.
The alternative simply doesn’t bear thinking about.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
© 2022, paradox . All rights reserved.