The Liberty Hawk

The Twitter warriors and paper tigers have continued to beat the drum of obfuscation. But the rest of the Republican Party has mostly remained silent in the face of the Ukraine Scandal and the coming impeachment of Donald Trump.  

Republicans in Congress, and conservative leaders across the country, don’t know what to do. Most of them recognize the gravity of the situation, even if they’re unwilling to admit it in public. On the one hand, they don’t know how this all going to play out. They’re understandably concerned about going down with the ship. On the other hand, Trump continues to have a firm grip on the Republican base. If this scandal fizzles out like others before it, any Republican who spoke out against the President could face the consequences at the polls.  

Already, Donald Trump, the ostensible lion of the GOP, has roared his dissatisfaction with the few Republicans openly questioning his actions, such as Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse. He has even gone so far as to call for Mitt Romney’s impeachment (apparently there is a very different benchmark of impeachment for insufficiently loyal members of Congress).   

Meanwhile, the few who have stepped forward to defend the President publicly have done so in performances that amount to shocking displays of intellectual inconsistency, cognitive dissonance, and a seemingly divorced sense of reality.   

Donald Trump is doubling and tripling down on his behavior, openly admitting to the allegations and claiming there’s nothing concerning about what he has done. This tact may work with the base, who have adopted a see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil approach to Donald Trump. But for lawmakers who are concerned with their public image as well as their future relevance once Trump is gone from the center-stage, there seems to be no clear path to navigating the situation unscathed.  

And so, the hostage lambs of Trump’s Republican flock have adopted the only middle-ground they can think of: silence. 

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Justin Stapley

Justin Stapley is the owner and editor of The Liberty Hawk and the voice of the Self-Evident Podcast. His principles and beliefs are grounded in the idea of ordered liberty as expressed in the traditions of classical liberalism, federalism, and modern conservatism.

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