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The last week and a half of the fourth month of the Trump presidency has sure been a doozy, with bombshell revelations unfolding on an hourly basis. In fact, the last 11 days have been so insane that it's hard to remember we've actually had 117 days of complete and utter chaos. Greg Sargent hits on some of the lowlights of the past four months.
Remember, Trump has been assaulting our democracy on multiple fronts since the beginning, and Republicans have mostly looked the other way. There is an unfortunate tendency to cover these various stories as separate from one another, but Trump has abused his power in multiple ways that, ultimately, all trace back to the same autocratic impulse. In addition to the Russia affair, there’s also the unprecedented, middle-finger-brandishing lack of transparency around his tax returns, even as he backs tax reform that would deliver his family a massive windfall; the laughably substandard ethics arrangement for his businesses and the perpetuation of likely emoluments clause violations; and the continued use of diplomatic business to promote Mar-a-Lago and steer cash into his pockets.
All of these—taken along with the alleged interference in ongoing probes—add up to a level of autocratic, above-the-law contempt for our democracy that is larger than the sum of its parts. And Republicans have effectively shrugged off most of it for as long as possible. So it’s plausible that even if obstruction of justice were reasonably well established, they’d find a way to evade taking it to its logical conclusion.
We don't know what the next dozen pairs of shoes to drop will be, but we do know that Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell will do nothing.
If anyone knows how to shrug off controversy and stonewall, it's him. McConnell is the master at digging in his heels on absolutely outrageous behavior until the passage of time and the pressing business of moving forward makes that behavior the new norm. He's willing to do this in violation of his sworn oath to the Constitution (witness the blockade of Merrick Garland) and he'll be willing to do it for Trump, no matter how destructive Trump becomes.
Democrats can't let him do that. They can't just make impassioned floor statements and then continue on with business as usual, as if everything is perfectly normal in the Senate. It is not. Acting like it is only allows McConnell to dig in harder.
Resistance is the key. The steadfast resistance of Democrats will be the only thing that gives any Republicans who either care enough about the nation or their future political careers shelter from McConnnell. They've got to know that they won't stand alone if they break from McConnell to stop this trainwreck. The only way to do this—the only way to break McConnell—is to shut the Senate down.
And by the way, it's the only patriotic thing to do, too.