Politics getting more black and white — justifications for Trump getting harder

There is no legitimate defense of the Trump presidency and the hour is getting late for Republican members of Congress to prove they value country over party. Those who are standing by him as well as those who are attempting to move the conversation on their agenda forward without renouncing him are worse than complicit.

Donald Trump has shown that he is indifferent to American values such as rule of law, he openly provides support for hate groups that should be unequivocally condemned, and he is actively involved in covering up and trivializing Russian meddling in the last election.

{mosads}At this point, Republicans must either break completely with Trump or admit that they have joined the dark side. Politics is often murky. Shades of grey abound. One can vote against a bill called the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” or “USA PATRIOT Act” and still be a patriot.

In furtherance of their long-standing interest in cutting the size of the welfare state, Republicans can even vote against funding disaster relief without such a choice being extraordinary, even if it can lead to bad optics.

But given how much damage I think Trump has inflicted on the country and the danger he could pose, politics is rapidly becoming black and white. Efforts by Republican politicians to create distance between themselves and the Republican president through nuanced responses to his latest outrage are no longer adequate.

Some Republican members of Congress hope that Trump’s actions and words will be downplayed by the media and by the voters as just the antics of an outsider pandering to his base. Marginalizing Trump, insisting that “The president speaks for himself” rather than the American people, cannot remove the stink that settles on those near him.

Analogies to Hitler and the German transition to fascism under the Nazis, however appropriate, arguably come with too much baggage. Besides, voters ignored historians when they tried to warn the country about Trump. But Star Wars works as an analogy.

In the original trilogy, whenever a stormtrooper appeared there was no need to inquiry into the extent of their loyalty to the Empire. The helmet and white armor said all that needed to be said. The audience did not have to ask if that particular stormtrooper had crafted a better health care system for the Republic or how they stood on how distant star systems should be taxed.

The helmet alone was enough to cue the audience into the fact that they were there to defend Darth Vader and to destroy the freedom-loving rebels. We do not have the John Williams’ score to announce that particular politicians are on the dark side, that they have allowed their ambition and love of party trump their higher obligations to country, but if you listen closely to the angst among Republicans you can nevertheless hear traces of the score. Just as his own family is trying to figure out how to avoid being permanently tainted by their proximity to the president, here seems to be subtle awareness among Republican members of Congress that the stormtrooper helmet they are donning might soon silence their independent voice and swallow their whole identity.

There are alarms sounding everywhere. A Yale historian warns, “If Republicans do not wish to be remembered (and forgotten) like the German conservatives of the 1930s, they had better find their courage — and their conservatism — fast.”

Lawfare’s Ben Wittes and Jane Chong write, “The time for musing has passed. It’s now time to begin a serious conversation about the impeachment and removal of President Trump by opening a formal impeachment inquiry.” The alarm bells are ringing from all quarters. Liberals and conservatives alike are sounding the alarm.

The Wall Street Journal, hardly the poster-child for the liberal media that Trump attacks as Fake News, noted that Trump was harming “his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.”

Nothing has changed since George Will argued, “So, it is up to the public to quarantine this presidency by insistently communicating to its elected representatives a steady, rational fear of this man whose combination of impulsivity and credulity render him uniquely unfit to take the nation into a military conflict.”

These are not the words of those still upset about the past election, these are the words of serious people (people who would not liken Republican politicians to stormtroopers) who are legitimately concerned about the future of the country under the leadership of a uniquely bad and problematic president.

Even if the public as a whole is easily distracted and has not yet fully heard these alarm bells, politicians cannot pretend to not hear them. Protecting the country is part of their job and must take priority even over advancing aspects of the conservative agenda that are still viable now that health care reform failed. Anti-immigrant efforts, corporate tax breaks, and cuts to the social safety net must wait.

The country cannot afford apathy or indifference to the ways Trump is undermining our democracy. The news cycle will of course continue and there will be events that demand our attention in much the way Hurricane Harvey demands our humanity.

But even as the news cycles from one crisis to another, politicians and the public must not lose sight of the larger picture. Congress is the entity best positioned to check the president and it is time for Republicans to join in resisting the president lest history rightly characterizes them as little more than stormtroopers for Trump.

There is nothing new to calling out Trump and highlighting Republican complicity, but if politicians are going to stand up for the country there needs to be a drumbeat of columns, calls, and protests.

Ezra Rosser is a law professor at American University Washington College of Law. You can follow him on Twitter @EzraRosser.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.