The American Crisis – 2024 – part 2

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The Decline of the Republican Party

After President Richard Nixon was re-elected in 1972, a major scandal was reported in the press about the Nixon administration. Investigations revealed the following criminal activities by Nixon Administration officials.

  • President Nixon’s team of ‘plumbers’ who targeted whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon papers fame, also broke into the Democratic party headquarters in Washington, DC to plant listening devices for political dirt on the Democratic party.
  • Richard Nixon distributed tens of millions in illegal campaign contributions to his own and other Republican campaigns during the 1972 elections.
  • Tapes of Oval Office conversations ( subpoenaed by the Congressional Judiciary committee and ordered by the United States Supreme Court revealed incontrovertible proof of President Nixon’s knowledge and approval of ( in rough non-presidential language ) the crimes and misdemeanors alleged in Congressional investigations.

In 1973, the Republican Party believed in bipartisanship, in working with the Democratic Party, even when the process was painful; the impeachment of a President of their own party. President Nixon, believing that his impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate was inevitable, resigned from office.

Members of the Republican Party are no longer capable of such selflessness to the truth or the pursuit of justice. Remember our societal democratic norms of belief and behavior from the first post in this series The American Crisis – 2024.

  • Both parties must agree to work with each other, toward the common good of our country
  • Both parties must agree to abide by the results of elections
  • Both parties must agree that government at the Federal, State and Local levels all have a role in maintaining the common good for all of us

One of the most frustrating aspects in the downfall of the Republican Party is how the Democratic Party in their hope that the other party will return to sanity keeps getting betrayed by the perfidy of Republican party members. In the following examples of special investigations, Republican party members were chosen to conduct investigations of both Republican and Democratic government officials. Even when the investigations revealed there was no wrongdoing, the concluding reports were made in such a way as to cause political damage to the Democratic officeholder under investigation, whereas if a Republican party officeholder is being investigated, the resulting report is misrepresented as a vindication whatever its conclusions. Examples Below.

The Whitewater investigation of President William Clinton and Hillary Clinton by Republican Kenneth Starr in 1994. Kenneth Starr found in his investigations some questionable real estate and financial transactions while the Clintons lived and worked in Arkansas, but nothing that would justify impeachment or criminal charges. The reason Starr’s investigation led to William Clinton’s impeachment hearing was that Clinton had sex with an intern in the Oval Office and Clinton lied about this liaison under oath. Kenneth Starr used the salacious nature of the personal information he obtained in his investigation to launch a political attack on a President of the opposing political party.

The investigation by Republican James Comey – Director of the FBI – into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alleged misuse of government email communications. James Comey released a memo 2 weeks before the 2016 election to the heads of several committees in the US Congress that he needed to “supplement” his testimony of July 2016. That additional email had been discovered on a laptop and that these emails were being investigated. In his July testimony, Comey had expressed the opinion that Secretary Clinton

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Republican James Comey’s opinion is that Secretary Clinton and her colleagues did not violate laws, but were “extremely careless”. James Comey’s own extremely careless memo released two weeks before a Presidential election betrayed the common good while he occupied one of the highest positions of moral trust in the United States.

The Investigation into Donald Trump’s contacts with Russian officials was suppressed by Trump Administration Attorney General William Barr. Republican William Barr delayed the release of the Mueller Report and purposely misrepresented the report findings that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, even though Robert Mueller reported multiple criminal acts, and acts of obstruction of justice by Donald Trump during his candidacy in the 2016 election for President of the United States.

To give credit where it is due, Republican Robert Mueller acted honorably in his investigation of Russian influence into the 2016 Presidential election. He did not leak like the sieve James Comey, and delivered his report of Candidate Trumps alleged crimes with Russian officials faithfully to Attorney General William Barr.

When classified documents were found in an old office and at one of President Biden’s homes from his time as Vice-President, Biden worked with government investigators to determine how it happened and immediately turned the documents over to the national archives. Republican members of Congress demanded an investigation into these documents, as former President Trump had purposely taken classified documents from Washington DC to his resort home in Mar-a-Lago Florida. In contrast to Democrat Joseph Biden, Republican Donald Trump did everything he could to keep the documents he had taken illegally from the White House, and the FBI was forced to raid his home to recover the documents.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in yet another misguided bipartisan gesture, appointed Republican Robert Hurr to investigate the classified documents Vice-President Biden had in his possession. Robert Hurr concluded that no wrongdoing by Biden or his staff had occurred, however he then added the following to his report – released February 2024

We have also considered that, at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.

At a time when President Biden is the oldest person to run for office of President of the United States and Republican media has been pushing the theme that President Biden has declining mental faculties. Clearly, Republican Robert Hurr is attempting to influence the Presidential election for a future appointment in a Republican administration.

Members of the Republican party can no longer be trusted in positions of political responsibility, like the Justice department. In fact, like many senior military leaders, Justice department officials should not participate in politics, even to membership in any political party or voting in elections. Their impartiality needs to be not only absolute, but to exhibit as absolute an appearance of impartiality as is possible.

Federal Government Shutdowns in the United States.

James Carter Administration – May 1, 1980 – caused by a reinterpretation of the 1884 Antideficiency Act – shutdown lasted one day – the only government shutdown caused by members of the Democratic party in the history of the United State.

Ronald Reagan Administration – caused by President Ronald Reagan’s veto’s of appropriation bills, as a negotiating tactic to force congress to make changes to these appropriation bills.

  • November 22, 1981 – shutdown lasted one day over a weekend
  • October 4, 1984 – shutdown lasted ~4 hours
  • October 12, 1986 – shutdown lasted ~4 hours

George H W Bush Administration – October 6, 1990 – caused by Republican members of Congress due to tax increases to reduce the budget deficit – shutdown lasted 3 days

William Clinton Administration – caused by Republican members of Congress threatening to not raise the debt ceiling

  • November 14, 1995 – shutdown lasted 5 days
  • December 16, 1995 – shutdown lasted 21 days

Barack Obama Administration – October 17, 2013 – caused by Republican members of Congress attempting to defund The Affordable Care Act ( ObamaCare ) by not raising the debt ceiling – shutdown lasted 16 days

Donald Trump Administration

  • January 20, 2018 – Continuing funding resolution failed to pass because of DACA provisions, then various compromise solutions to minimize impact to the United States military could not be agreed upon until a bipartisan group of 20 senators put together a compromise – shutdown lasted 3 days
  • December 22, 2018 – President Trump would not approve the appropriations bill which did not fund his border wall with Mexico – newly elected Democratic party members of Congress were able to pass an appropriation bill which had already passed in the Senate – shutdown lasted 35 days – the longest government shutdown in American history – with both a Republican President, House and Senate.

Republican party office holders in this last government shutdown on Dec 2018, shut down the government of the United States in a disagreement they had with each other. Only the installation of newly elected Democratic party members of congress broke the stalemate within the Republican party.

The reason for this Republican disfunction is the accepted Republican ideology that government is the primary threat to the ‘freedom’ of their wealthy supporters, who do not need the programs or support that our government provides. Their conclusion then is to grab all they can before shutting it all down. The question we all need to ask ourselves as Americans is why we should vote for a Republican candidate ever again?