The Arab spring began eleven years ago with some guy setting himself on fire in Tunisia. Well, we optimistic westerners thought, isn't it about time? Haven't these guys had crappy governments long enough, don't they yearn to be free?
It was bracing to see the idealists taking to the streets, openly speaking truth to power, shedding the shackles of awful authoritarianism. Out of the way you mean old dictators. You can't stop men who yearn to be free.
Except you can. Every single one of them ended up with a dictator just as bad, or worse, than the one they had before. I hear that things are a little better in Tunisia now, but that is it.
In the wake of the sacking of the capitol it looked like we may have had a republican spring against the Trump rump. Brave words were spoken. At last we dems thought, haven't the reps broken over like shotguns for Trump long enough? Don't they yearn to be free?
Apparently not. At the risk of repetition I cannot say often enough how much I detest Liz Cheney, but I have to say I was inspired when she rose up in the house like Lady Liberty at the barricades in the streets of Paree, and called out Trump for the shit that he is.
And I equally detest Moscow Mitch, but there he was hinting broadly that he might vote to impeach Trump and hinting that he had enough followers for his cause to banish Trump from the White House forever. Had he finally come to his senses, reached out to take the steering wheel away from the drunk?
And now tatters. Only 9 out of 211 reps joined Ms Cheney in her suddenly very lonely cause, and now they are likely to be removing her from her position in the republican party. Before the senate could even vote on conviction Rand Paul called for some spurious vote on whether or not it is constitutional to convict a prez who is out of office. Most constitutional experts think it certainly is, but of course that is not the issue. The issue is are you for or agin Trump, and only five out of fifty republican senators dared come out agin. Not surprisingly Moscow took a gulp and voted for Trump.
Politics is mercurial and things can happen, but right now it appears that the G O P is signed, sealed, and delivered to Trump.
After posting this I went to one of my favorite political websites, Politico, and cane across this article which basically adds more details to what I was talking about. I know Beagles is up to his elbows of my prior article so I don't want to put any further burden on him, but I just thought I would include it anyway,
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/27/post-trump-gop-462864
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