The 126 Republicans who signed on for 'an act of cynical, unpatriotic, undemocratic hypocrisy' [View all]

[Zorro]

Opinion by John Avlon

Republicans used to be the party of freedom, the party of President Abraham Lincoln. This week, 126 Republicans in Congress and 18 red state attorneys general decided to repudiate the legacy of Lincoln and freedom by endorsing Texas' ludicrous legal effort to overturn the election results. The good news is that the Supreme Court dismissed the case with no public dissents Friday night. The bad news is that a majority of congressional Republicans chose to support a demagogue over our democracy. It should not be forgotten or forgiven.

These 126 hyper-partisan politicians should now be known as members of the autocrat caucus. From Louisiana Rep. Ralph Abraham to New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, they added their names to this infamous list in a desperate attempt to overturn the election in four swing states won by Joe Biden. They decided to attack democracy itself when the results did not go their way.

Don't be fooled by whatever ornate excuses they make. This was not an attempt to find new evidence or even more absurdly "defend the constitution". It was objectively the opposite. Perhaps some of these 126 believed this a way to raise money from the base, insurance against a difficult partisan primary, or more to the point, insurance against an uncomfortable tweet from President Donald Trump. They surrendered their conscience and common sense because of fear and greed. Rarely have so many sold out their country for so little.

These chose to support a case based on false claims and lack of evidence. And it's particularly pathetic to see them do it for a weak and insecure lame duck President Trump, a would-be autocrat who's driving this nation to some kind of desperate reckoning based on nothing more than his own psychological inability to deal with the fact he lost an election and lost the ability to recognize reality as well. In most cases, that would be dismissed as a sad form of sickness that's incompatible with the power of the presidency, but these folks chose to trade their integrity to support Trump's delusion all the way up to the Supreme Court.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/13/opinions/126-republicans-cynical-unpatriotic-hypocrisy-avlon/index.html