Republicans remain unprincipled cowards.

Impeachment 2021 is showing they’re more than willing to swallow their pride and defend the man who nearly destroyed their party, all because of base politics.

Sometimes I think about how much better a state American politics would be in if Democrats slavishly obeyed their base to the same degree Republicans do theirs… we’d have progressive initiatives coming out of our ears and a party actually willing to fight for workers. Alas, we have a corporate party, and a loony corporate party.

Republican’s devotion to base politics goes back a long way, since the Reagan years the party has cultivated a coalition of big business and wealthy elites wanting tax cuts and deregulation, with wild eyed libertarians who despise government, and extreme branches of evangelical Christianity with Bible thumping regressive social values. And of course, let’s not forget: covert dog whistles to bigots and white supremacists, ensuring that those votes are also hoovered up by the GOP machine. It’s a messy patchwork of diametrically opposed groups all devoted to one party, and for the best party of 40 years it’s worked like a charm, reshaping US politics in the image of the radical right.

In the immediate aftermath of the siege on the Capitol, it actually looked like Republicans were wavering. Briefly, the leadership in the House and Senate seemed united in their condemnation of then President Trump, and whispering and briefing indicated that a conviction could actually plausibly happen; the impossible seemed if not likely, feasible. Alas, that wave passed quickly, and Republicans are back in the pocket of their daddy Trump. Principles mean nothing to the elected officials in the Republican party, nor do decency, or shame, they are devoid of both.

This impeachment trial should be an opportunity for a bipartisan repudiation of the actions of Donald Trump, leaving a clear marker in the sand for any future prospective authoritarian, that if they go this way, they WILL be removed from office, and WILL face the legal ramifications; essentially a chance to demonstrate the antiquated system of checks and balances in America works how it was designed to, when push really comes to shove and something this blatantly impeachable happens. However painful politically in the short term for Republicans facing primaries this might be, it would have gone a long way to saving the country they profess to love. The fact they refuse to put the good of democracy before their own political careers shows the Republican party is as far from anything you might call patriotic as it is possible to get; they hold their country, their democracy, and their people in utter contempt.

Thing is, most of these clowns still don’t dare defend Trump, because they all know what he did was dreadful and can’t find it in their swampy hearts to actually bring themselves to launch a full throated defence, so we’re left to whataboutery, constitutional doublespeak, and bullshittery for the next few days. If the GOP actually believes what Trump did was fine and defensible, let’s see them all stand up and launch a full throated defence; we’d all respect them a lot more if they openly went “this depraved thing, we support it” rather than a load of red herring type nonsense, which is what we seem to be being subjected to by all but the most insane Republicans. They can’t defend him, but they will never, ever, take a stand.

Let’s make it very clear: this impeachment trial, when it ends in acquittal, demonstrates once and for all that American democracy is beyond repair, and it should be taken apart piece by piece and totally reimagined. It is now an extremist kleptocracy, not a liberal conception of democracy (historically America never really was either “liberal” or a functioning example of any sort of democracy). This place isn’t leader of the free world, it’s a cesspit of racism, hatred, conspiracies, and regressivism. When that vote passes to acquit (and it will), anyone remotely liberal or so called progressive can call time on ever considering the Republican party a legitimate party to work with, or recognise. From now on, Democrats must push their priorities, and ignore the GOP; it is no longer a legitimate party, let it shout in its own echo chamber, stop capitulating to its priorities or trying to bargain with the scaly cadavers it calls its leaders (I’m looking at you Mitch McConnell). Democrats cannot let this go, and in 2022 must hammer and hammer vulnerable Republicans for their vote to acquit.

A staggering fact of US politics is how out of step the GOP is with the country at large, including majorities of its own voters, on such a staggering array of issues. A good example would be the fact there is a sweeping, supermajoritarian consensus around the American Rescue Plan, Biden’s ambitious plan that doesn’t go as far a needed, but goes a whole lot farther than Obama’s stimulus did, and is a good floor for progressives to work with, with so many welcome provisions within it. Republicans oppose the thing, setting them against 80% of American voters; now, that’s the sort of math I like the look of.

Rather than hammer the GOP on abstract things like being “the party of QANON”, Democrats must also use 2022 as an opportunity to show how out of step and out of touch Republicans are, how they worked to stop relief getting out the door, how they fought to delete key provisions, how they pushed the priorities of a wealthy elite over the needs of the people, an dhow they opposed massively popular legislative measures after massively popular legislative measure. If they perform, Joe Biden can hit the campaign trail for the Democrats in 2022, saying “we did all this, and no thanks to them”. That,, above all else, would be the single most potent and effective strategy to hold and expand congressional majorities at the midterms, flying against the odds of conventional wisdom. These are unusual times, and the latitude for this is there, if Democrats take the initiative to be the party of “rebuild” not the party of “gridlock”.