So a couple of days ago the second impeachment trial of the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago was wrapped up. A vote of 53-47 found him guilty of incitement to insurrection for getting people riled up leading to the coup attempt on January 6, 2021. Unfortunately, since the impeachment requires a two thirds majority in the Senate to convict this actually means he's acquitted of the charge (even if only on that technicality). With a pretty much dead even Senate (VP Harris can be the tie breaking vote when needed) they needed 17 Repubs to actually put country over their party - only seven were willing to do so. Since there's more than enough coverage over what this means (the emboldening of extremists on the right and wondering if people are more prepared for the next coup attempt which, if the response form law enforcement is like the one last month, mightbe successful), I want to focus on something else.
One of the bigger questions is why the Coupublicans refused to stand up and purge the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago from his influence in their party, making sure he can';t run for public office again as a result.There are two things we can take from this. The majority opinion is that the Coupub Senators are afraid. Afraid of the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago's wrath for sure, but more likely of their voters - the majority of whom support the Mad Fuhrer and have been whipped up into a rage by them over false claims of voter fraud and conspiracy theories that cast anyone who opposes the Mad Fuhrer as a satan worshiping pedophile or some other nauseating bullshit with no fucking basis in fact). While this does play a role (look at what voters at an airport in his home state of South Carolina attacking Lindsey Graham when he decided not to challenge the election did to get him back in line with nose firmly up the Mad Fuhrer's ass for an example), I think there's another conjecture (some would even say conspiracy theory) that deep down can be drawn from this,.
THE COUPUBLICANS WERE HOPING THE COUP WOULD BE SUCCESSFUL!!!!
I know this is conjecture at this point and any evidence is circumstantial at this point but I do think we have to consider this.
First, the majority of Coupubs in national office were more than willing to flirt with the thought that The Mad Fuhrer In Exile at Mar-A-Lago really won the election but had it stolen by voter fraud (i.e.: black and brown voters coming out and voting) or some other nefarious force to force Biden upon them. Some may have only mildly hinted but didn't denounce such theories. Others went whoel hog on embracing said bullshit and trying to kiss the Mad Fuhrer's ass. Regardless, decades of a right wing echo chamber helped build a situation where any truth that didn't fit their curren belief system is discounted and, in some cases treatede like it doesn't matter, even in the face of overwhelming evidence otherwise.
Now it's important to point out that, after the participants in the coup attempt left the Capital, Congress eventually came out of hiding and resumed the ceremonial vote to count the electoral votes as most of the 13 Senators that originally planned to challenge certain states electoral votes decided to stop challenging the vote and accept the election results. There are a number of small things (including the fear and shock of surviving such an event) but there's also a more selfish reason - IT HAPPENED WHILE THEY WERE IN THE ROOM!!!!!
Yes, seeing the angriest portion of your base storm in with weapons while a gallows is being built outside and people come in wearing flexicuffs (what the zip ties technically were) and hoping to arrest co electoral vote winner Mikey can put a jolt of fear that seems rhetorical when spinning a bunch of lies in a case of trying to out Repub your fellow Repubs while having a sense you'd never have to see what the result was. However, in some of the cases (especially when one notes that the House COupubs kept their challenges even after the coup attempt), one gets a feeling that if it happened and the room only had Democrats in it they'd gladly want to grab some popcorn and watch whatever tortures and executions happened with a sadistic sense of glee for their entertainment.
See, even though the Mad Fuhrer of Mar-A-Lago (now the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago) was horrible to everyone who wasn't kissinfg his ass he did give white supremacists and white conservative christians a lot of what they wanted from court appointments to repeals environmental regulations to making racism more acceptable for one political party to show more and more of as long as they didn't open shout out the N word. And guess what groups are the main demographics for the Coupublicans now?
As for this being a facotr in why the Coupubs wouldn't convict the Mad Fuhrer, it's a mix. In the case of Senators Joshy and Teddy both are being conisdered poptential presidential candidates for 2024 and feel they need to feed the increasingly toxic fanbase the Mad Fuhrer has created (it also helps that said toxicity melds neatly into many of the beliefs of both of these creatures). For others it's a cynical shift to hold power and try and prevent Biden's administration from doing anything (much like what they tried during the Obama years). House minority leader Addison who looks like a turtle's speech claiming that Donny was responsible for a lot of what happened on January 6th even though he earlier voted to acquit him on grounds that it was unconstitutional (though the charges were filed nine days before the Mad Fuhrer left office and Addison kicked the can down the road until the turnover so he could claim this horsehsit) is more a power play than anything else. When added to th emix polls claiming a majority of Coupub voters would leave the party if the Mad Fuhrer would leave the Coupubs and start a new party and this has some validity.
Still, in the end, I have to say that their "acquittal" of the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago shows that, even though a month earlier they were jolted by the reality of what their eliminationist horsehit broughr, it's clear that their desire for power over principle finds most Coupublicans in the space of being willing to risk another coup attempt and hope that it benefits them. I hope I'm wrong about that but given how the Coupubs have been acting (especially state parties who are still trying to overturn the election) it seems apparent that a majority of Coupublicans in national office would be fine withe another coup attempt (and hope it would be successful) as long as it doesn't happen when they're in the room and only their opposition gets tortured and killed int eh process.
Here's hoping Democrats pay attemtion and realize that you can't reason with a Coupub most of the time mainly because it's likely they, on some level, want anyone who disagrees with them tortured and killed if it woould keep them in power.
In the meantime the Mad Fuhrer in Exile at Mar-A-Lago still remains a figure to reckon with in the Coupublican party and, as long as teh party he's still the head of refuses to do the right thing to save the country and inste3ad choose their grip on power, we're still in the dangerous age of MAGA gone wild where conspiracy theories demonizing and dehumanizing your opponent are more important than the truth and a narrow interpretation of one religion is allowed their own facts and can impose them on the rest of us. Because of this, eternal vigilance means being on guard against whatever coup attempts the Coupubs and their friends have in mind more than any foreign threat these days.
As I said earlier a lot of this is conjecture and I hope I'm wrong about this, but as we see senators like Gym Class Jordan and Devin "I'm gonna sue my ficitonal cow" Nunes try to blame Nancy Pelosi for the coup attempt despite overwhelming evidence that the Mad Fuhrer stirred this shit up and let the coup attempt loose while we went home to watch it on TV it's more than apparent that too goddamn many Coupubs in national office seem like they'd be okay with a suiccessful coup attempt as ong as they got the heads up and weren't in the room when it happens.
