Don't pay so much attention to Trump that you miss the many Republican efforts to destroy our democracy.

Republicans are using Trump as the grand distraction that he is to hide their push to undermine the rule of law and the right to vote in one state after another.

You know I do not like to talk about Donald Trump. I prefer to focus on the good things Democrats are doing, the nefarious MAGA undermining of democracy in the states, and the powerful threat we face from our now illegitimate Supreme Court. But sometimes there’s no avoiding the elephant in the room.

That elephant is, as always, the GOP. Because the news last week gave them an opportunity to stand for something. For anything, really. But they didn’t take it.  

After last week, no-one of conscience, no-one who believes in treating others as we would have them treat us, no-one who cares about the rule of the law or the institutions of democracy, nor anyone who see America as a leader in a complex and diverse world, can possibly think that man, Donald Trump, should hold power of any kind. 

I don’t need to describe his faults for you. Last week they were proven based on a preponderance of the evidence by a jury that found him liable for sexual battery and defamation. Not surprising, because just a few months ago they were proven by another jury that found a pair of Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives. And, of course, this week the man’s fantastical shortcomings were on full display in CNN’s ill-advised so-called town hall.

At the end of this show on May 6th, a caller wanted to talk about Hunter’s laptop and claimed that President Biden had personally taken millions of dollars from corrupt deals. When I asked the caller for evidence, he just repeated his charge. In case he is listening, last week the NY Times wrote this, 

“After four months of investigation, House Republicans who promised to use their new majority to unearth evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden acknowledged on Wednesday that they had yet to uncover incriminating material about him, despite their frequent insinuations that he and his family have been involved in criminal conduct and corruption.”

Look, there is no Biden organization. Hunter and other Biden relatives are not working in the government, let alone in senior White House positions. There is a Trump Organization, and its leaders did have occupy senior position in the Trump Administration. And those same people did get billion dollar investments from foreign sovereign wealth funds. 

But I am not raising this issue to correct one caller. Instead, I want you to consider the certainty of the caller as just further proof of the dangerous path Mr. Trump is taking this good country. Americans, like the fellow who called in with his angry, baseless slander, like the audience CNN curated for their Trump show, they have been called to form a dangerous phalanx by a power-mad huckster. I have no doubt that they are prepared to step into the place left vacant by their fellow MAGA members now serving time for criminal trespass and other crimes at our nation’s capital.

But the elephant… An elephant never forgets. You can bet that members of the GOP leadership and right-wing political professionals across America know and remember all of this. They could have chosen to lead in a responsible way, to protect America from this threat that originated in their party. They did not. They made a different choice. One out of step with our history. 

Former President Donald Trump with CNN host Kaitlan Collins during a town hall event in New Hampshire May 10, 2023. (CNN)

American’s have always made tough choices. It was painful to spend that icy winter in Valley Forge. But our democracy required the sacrifice. And men chose to stay to keep alive the revolution and the promise of the Declaration of Independence. It was not easy for workers to win the right to bargain collectively. But Americans would not be terrorized into submission– whether on Blair Mountain in West Virginia or in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. It was a hardship to walk to work in Selma for months on end, boycotting city buses that enforced Jim Crow. But Americans walked and walked and walked because our democracy demanded that sacrifice. 

We had a public health emergency when Mr. Trump was president. Apparently wearing a mask was too big of a sacrifice, so tens of thousands of Americans died needlessly. That emergency ended this week.  Republicans have learned nothing because they refuse to learn anything.

They say they don’t want history taught in Florida because it might make some people feel bad. As usual, that is a lie. The real reason they don’t want history taught is because it inspires us. People who learn from the past make tough choices and better futures.

Today’s power-mad GOP would rather sacrifice our democracy than make any sacrifice to save it. They are hanging on to Mr. Trump and they using him as the grand distraction that he is to hide their efforts to undermine the rule of law and the right to vote in one state after another. 

You’ve been listening. You know. Share the facts. We are stronger together.