Republican inaction speaks louder than words

Most of the party still won't break with Trump in any way that matters

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Mere hours after a deranged and violent mob carried out a terrorist attack against the U.S. Capitol, incited to do so by a deranged and violent president, elected officials in both the Senate and House took to their chamber floors Wednesday night to lament the gruesome events that had just transpired. Both Republicans and Democrats seemed understandably shaken by the unhinged violence, a standard feature in the country for the last four years, thanks to our menacing president, but one that had only now intersected with their own lives.

Yet even this brush with danger, and the plain fact that it had all been instigated by the president himself, has not awakened Republicans to the clear and present threat to American democracy and, more importantly, to what they might do about it. Rather than launching impeachment proceedings or invoking the 25th Amendment — a critical act to safeguard the country and prevent Trump and his rabid followers from inflicting more death and destruction before January 20 — Republicans are, once again, choosing the meaningless option of symbolically distancing themselves from the president instead of lawfully removing him from office.

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Neil J. Young

Neil J. Young is a historian and the author of We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics. He writes frequently on American politics, culture, and religion for publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, Vox, and Politico. He co-hosts the history podcast Past Present.