By Tennessee Tribune News
During the Nuremberg trials following the fall of the Third Reich, members of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Party tried in vain to shield themselves from the culpability of having aided and abetted in one of the most horrific crimes against humanity ever recorded by claiming that they were merely following the orders of their superiors.
This cowardly defense fell on deaf ears and the perpetrators of the holocaust were forced to face the dire consequences of following the fuhrer’s orders rather than their conscience. The Nuremberg court refused to accept that acquiescence or complicity was a pardonable offense. No, each German officer or solider, who participated in the atrocities, was to be held accountable for his role in supporting Hitler’s reign of terror against humanity.
Today’s Republican Party, with its sheepish members, are creating a Third Reich atmosphere in America with their blind obedience to the fuhrer, Donald J. Trump. This is no longer the party of Abraham Lincoln.
It has sadly morphed into the party of Donald Trump. President Lincoln, a man of inexhaustible courage, deep religious faith and towering intellect, would be a complete stranger in today’s Republican Party. The Republican Party of 2020 is under the demagogical leadership of Donald Trump. Trump is the antithesis of Lincoln’s vision for America. He is divisive, bigoted and self-serving.
Donald Trump acts more life a mobster than a president. He has beaten members of his party into submission. Like the fictitious Count Dracula, he has drained all the ethical blood from the veins that flow through the Republican Party. The party stands today as a meeting ground for slavish carcasses, bowing down to Trump’s insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement.
He is now convinced – with the misdirected guidance of so-called legal scholars like Alan Dershowitz – that he is above the law. This should sound the alarm for all who value the constitutional structure of our country. The U. S. Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump, without holding a fair trial, will only embolden him to begin acting more like his role model, Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia.
Just when things were beginning to look hopeless, as is always the case, one individual rose up to challenge Donald Trump’s absolute domination of the Republican Party. The U. S. Senator from Utah, the former standard bearer of the Republican Party and the former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, guided by his conscience, courageously stood up to Donald Trump and said: Enough. Enough of your foolishness; enough of your power-grabbing; enough of your thumbing your nose at the rule of law and enough of your subverting the constitution of the United States of America.
Senator Romney said in no uncertain terms that Donald Trump abused the power of the office that he holds for the selfish, political purpose of gaining an advantage over a political rival and for this he should have been found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of impeachment.
Romney’s courageous act has made him a pariah within his party but a patriot within his country. With his singular act of courage, Mitt Romney has probably shattered what was beginning to look like an impenetrable wall of invincibility surrounding Trump. All of America and all who respect the rule of law in our constitutional democracy owe Mitt Romney a debt of gratitude.
If America is to be spared the fate of Nazi Germany, it will only happen if men and women of conscience stand up and stand united against the power-grabs of authoritarian leaders like Donald J. Trump.