Republicans for the Rule of Law is a group of life-long Republicans dedicated to support for the laws applying equally to everyone, from the average citizen to the president of the United States.
“It’s clear from the report today that there’s a lot of political interference that was attempted [by Trump],” Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republicans for the Rule of Law, told Newsweek. “This is not the end of the Mueller investigation, this is just the beginning. It looks like the Mueller report really is a road map for Congress. And that there was no exoneration, definitely obstruction.”
“The Mueller Report revealed multiple instances of President Trump lying and obstructing justice. Twenty years ago, Republicans denounced a Democratic president for lying and obstructing justice,” the 34-second advertisement’s opening reads, before cutting to old clips of GOP lawmakers condemning Clinton on Capitol Hill. “Republicans stood for the rule of law then. We should stand for the rule of law now,” the ad concludes.
The advertisement’s goal, according to Longwell, is to “encourage speaking up from Republicans.”
“They need to grapple with what’s in [the Mueller report], which is incredibly disturbing,” she said. “We’re not urging impeachment or any kind of action other than Congress, specifically Republicans, should join the Democrats, to investigate the matter for fully and come to some conclusion about accountability.”
Boorish behavior from Trump is to be expected, but the GOP’s uncritical, fawning, obsequious embrace of this deranged megalomaniac is stunning. The Republican rank-and-file should take a clue from the fact that history’s harsh judgment fell not only on Hitler but also those who blindly followed him. Trump is no Hitler — not yet — but he is certainly a demagogue who makes his loyal fans look like dupes.
The real problem may simply be factions within the United States. When either party is in opposition both go to the impeachment hobby horse. They use Americans misunderstanding of politics and the realities of party politics to dupe Americans in the hope of hanging onto a house of Congress or get their guy or gal into the White House.
The rule of law folks miss the fact that impeachment and removal from office is a political act. When done it only removes the person from office and the only sanction is they cannot hold office again. It also overlooks that most impeachments do not lead to removal from office, though the person quitting before the process is over is not all that unusual.
If one insists we should be comparing Trump to Hitler then one actually has to look at Hitler’s rule. He did not wait for over two years to consolidate his rule and become dictator over Germany. He used the political process to consolidate power to his party and pass the laws he wanted, made himself top dog and then shut down the legislature with no further elections.