Well, the rats are finally and slowly beginning to leave the sinking ship.
Over the past almost 4 years we have seen a handful of
ethical Republican leaders stand by the principles of honesty and
accountability that we have a voted right to expect in all our public SERVANTS.
They braved the castrating effects of caustic, repulsive
bullying, defamation, and personal attack from a verbal weapon-wielding presidential
poser, his scathing rebuke and retribution, and held their ground.
During all of this, many of us have been wondering – where are
the Republican leaders? Where have they been? Why are they silent in the face
of this massive and preposterous attack on the Republic for Which They Stand?
Their silence has been deafening, mystifying, horrifying and sad. Worse yet,
the tacit support indicated by their silence has been frightening. Our hearts
have been broken, our hopes deflated, our trust badly battered, and our sense
of democracy threatened.
Now, as the skies darken over this administration, with no hope of pulling any publicly
approved millions-of-voter hoax over the American people’s eyes congealing into undeniable fact, the hangers on, the coat-tailers, the helping-themselves-at-the-table satellites circling around the horn of plenty of
handouts for those who flatter me, or at least shut up – because shutting up is
complicity – are sensing the sinking of their golden goose ship of power and plenty and
leaving the table. They are jumping off by disagreeing with an
illogical, unfactual, unskilled, unmanageable, demagogic, presumptive, unqualified
impostor. They are speaking the truth, facing the facts, and publicly acknowledging them to what may be left of their voters. Whew. Finally. Some real reality.
But may we watch and count and remember with our eyes open.
These late-leavers are those who sold their political souls for personal
gain. If they did it once, they will do it again. It is in the nature and grain of their political persona, hidden beneath the surface, showing in actions and screaming in silence. No personal gain at the political table, they leave and go looking for crumbs of approval from the voters
who put them there in the first place. Did they do their job standing up for
the welfare of those whom they were charged to serve as they gobbled at the
table of Trump plenty of power for a few, maybe for you if you are loyal? You decide. You are the voter. But remember what they
did not say, what they did not do, as they sat at the table with a wanna be
dictator. Remember.
We can shine the light of the failure of political ethics
clearly on Republicans in this instance, but in truth what is at stake here is
political ethics in all arenas, in all parties, in all individuals seeking to
take on the role of SERVING the people of this country. And one thing we may
have lost in this muck is the personal ethics we bring to the process of choosing
and voting for our servant leaders. If we can be led to vote for someone with
no appropriate life experience and qualifications perhaps we are not as
familiar with the qualifications of the job position that needs to be filled.
Perhaps we are voting with unhealed emotions of anger, fear, pain and revenge.
These origins will never lead us to healthy leadership. We, as a people, have
personal healing and self-examination to do so that we have clear eyes minds
and hearts to vote with. Ethics and self-honesty begins in each person and becomes a communal
expression as we choose our leaders. Ethics begins with us, the voters, and ends in Washington DC.
