G.O.P- Grand Old Peckerheads Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

G.O.P- Grand Old Peckerheads
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

Where is the Barry Goldwater from the GOP? The Grand Old Party- the Republican Party, whose @POTUS, Donald J Trump is, or, come Jan,20, 2021, was. Remember and recall the dark and somber days of the Watergate scandal with Republican Richard Nixon, as POTUS.

On Aug. 7, 1974, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, Republican, representing Arizona State, made it clear to the embattled Nixon that he faced all-but-certain impeachment, conviction and removal from office in connection with the Watergate scandal. The Arizona Republican Senator walked into White House and is purported to have told Nixon in clear and unequivocal terms, “ Mr. President, the game is over. Your support on Capitol Hill is no longer there. You face certain Impeachment. Time, therefore to go”. Nixon announced his resignation the next evening, effective at noon on Aug 9, 1974.

Of course, as in anything political, accounts vary. Tomes have been written on whether Goldwater boldly asked Nixon to ‘Go’ or he merely purveyed the news, Nixon did not want to hear- that support on the Hill was gone and he faced possible impeachment. But, it is now recorded history that it took a bold Republican, who was powerful enough on The Hill, to tell Nixon, as it was, and the fact that the day after, Richard Nixon was gone, is an enduring legacy endearing to the American democracy.

Today, if Donald Trump depicts the worst in America, the Republican Party he has captured, to become a cult leader, the Senate Majority leader Moscow Mitch McConell and the Senate Judiciary Committee leader Lindsey Graham, , both Republicans, are worse. The former has earned his proud reputation as an Obstructionist and he is famously famous for telling Barack Obama when he was elected in 2008 that he would be a fool to expect any legislative co operation from the Senate.

And remember how he blocked the candidature of Judge Merick Garland to the US Supreme Court, nomination made by Barack Obama, 11 months still to go in his Presidency, in 2015, on the demise of Justice Antonin Scalia. McConell, Kentucky Senator, refused the basic courtesy of even meeting the gentleman Judge Merick Garland. This did not prevent McConell from rushing and running through the nomination of Judge Amy Cony Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, on her death in office. And this notwithstanding her personal and moving request on video that she ‘hoped that if she died before the Nov,3 POTUS elections, the Trump administration would leave it to the next administration to nominate her replacement”. McConell was not buying it, as he was thoroughbred hypocrite.

And as for Lindsey Graham, the Senator from South Carolina, he has proved to be the turncoat of the century in democratic America. During the 2015 Republican Presidential Primaries Lindsey – he called Donald Trump “ He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,”. And then when at the time he joined McConell to block the Merick Garland candidacy to SCOTUS – he told the world- “Please record my statement and hold me to it, if I flip on this position”. When confronted with his own statement recently, he simply ‘ran away’. These characters are nothing but a pejorative in the US of A- Peckerheads a.k.a.unpleasant, mean idiots.

Donald Trump’s Art of the Steal ( his co authored book Art of the Deal was a con job says its co author) is understandable. For ‘he’ is that kind of a narcissistic being. But what of these dyed in the wool Republican Senators. They are proving to be worse. Let us understand that these Republicans are worried over the 2 run-off elections for the Senate seats from Georgia which will decide the Senate majority and their positions as ‘leaders’.

They know Trump has the Base under his control. His unwavering and immovable Base will vote as Trump directs. These Republican Senators are shamefully silent, as they do not want to be ‘antagonising Trump and his base’. There is nothing worse about their conduct than the present. While the Emperor is running around without the clothes “We Won the Election’ and refusing to concede a peaceful transition, these Senators are in hiding but naked as well. This is far worse than the worst of Donald J Trump.

Next time, when any of these Republicans lecture us from the cocoons of their committees on the hoary traditions of their Founders and how proud a constitutional democracy US of A was, let us laugh them on their face. We will not spit, as yet.

For in the 2020 elections Joe Biden did win and awaits to be inaugurated on Jan,20,2021 , voted in by a majority by 8 million votes. The US Republic stands shredded by the Republican Senators. Truth to tell, Donald J Trump was not a Republican . He chose to become one to become POTUS. And with no conservative values of any kind which the Conservatives claim to possess. But, these Senators, they have been born and bred as Republicans. For them to trash the US as a Republic is horrendously shameful.

Honest to god, I am thrilled to bits that the oldest democracy is showing itself for what it is, at the core. A hypocritical, undemocratic, selfish, self-possessed political animals ridden nation, whose politicians will go to any lengths to posit themselves in power. And when Donald Trump threatens to contest the 2024 elections, the world is aghast and wanders how they can trust and believe a Joe Biden today- when the Paris Climate Deal, Iran Nuclear Deals and several international trade deals have been thrown out of the window by Trump.

The entire GOP and particularly these two Senators who have enjoyed all the powers and privileges and accomplished all their personal goals thus far are sitting back because it would suit them and their agendas if Trump gets a second term miraculously. For them, thx nation and it’s American Values, they wear Bob their sleeves, be damned. Personal interest comes above all else.

They are unlikely to follow the Barry Goldwater example for they have more to lose if Donald J Trump is gone. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court).