The Shameless, Immoral Farse of the Republican Senators
Varna, Bulgaria, January 19th, 2020
Salaroche

Has the crumbling of American morals at the top echelons of government ever been so evident for the whole world to see? Have we ever witnessed in the history of the country the American justice system ever being so widely mocked and despised by any number of sitting senators?

The answer to both those questions is a resounding NO! as never before have the means of communication been this instantaneous and widely available so as to be able to broadcast live whatever our elected officials say in the public arena on a daily basis. And there’s where the shameless amorality of one of the two major political parties of the day keeps shedding its ominous darkness upon the future of the country.

As we speak, we are at a point in history where some seasoned, well-known Republican Senators have already felt free to declare openly in public that they intend to break the oath they took just a few days ago as jurors in the impending Impeachment trial against Trump. And they did so with the apparent conviction that there will be no political price for them to pay in the next elections.

Rule XXV of the Senate Rules for Impeachment Trials clearly states that, before the trial begins, all senators have to take the following oath: "I solemnly swear [or affirm, as the case may be] that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [the person being impeached], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God." And all of the 100 US Senators took that oath on January 16th, 2020.

But doesn't such oath-taking look like a perfect sham as even before they took it some of the most prominent Republican Senators had openly declared before the TV cameras that they don’t have the slightest intention of being impartial during the Impeachment trial? Isn't this a total mockery of "American justice"? Doesn't all of this look like a perfectly shameless farse?

So, what is going on here? Where has accountability gone when it comes to our elected officials being susceptible to the criticism of the American voters? Are Republican senators right in assuming that a majority of Americans no longer gives a single damn in the face of such blatant insult to the idea of justice? Have the American people grown so numb to the politics of the country as to no longer care whether their elected officials perform their official duties according to the highest possible moral standards of the nation?

The United States of America has seldom been the standard bearer for the best moral behavior along humankind’s history, but the ideals imprinted in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution have for long been an inspiration to the rest of the nations of the world.

Our real-life behavior does not always conform to the best ideals we aspire to follow, but at least there has always been a certain sense of regret and even shame, when we stray away from our path. None of that seems to apply to the present circumstances.

The Republican Party seems to have lost their moral capacity to feel shame for their trampling all over the country’s core principles. Their idolatry of Trump has dug down so deep into whatever is left of their moral core, so as to blind them to the harm they are inflicting upon themselves, not to mention upon the republic’s Democratic form of government.

The country has sunk down into similar and even worse crises in the past and it has always emerged from them victorious, or at least relatively so, but that does not take away even a spec of shame from the obtuse and highly irresponsible approach the Republican Party has thus far embraced.

There may still be a chance that some Republican senators may wake up from their idol-worshipping stupor and remember that the oath they took when they were sworn-in as Senators was not to protect the erratic, narcissistic whims of a would-be dictator, but to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

… in the meantime… the beat goes on…

Salaroche