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There is a worrying reason that Republicans in Congress give for refusing to break up with President Donald Trump: They fear for their lives.
According to Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), this is a major reason more Republicans in the House are not voting to impeach Donald Trump following the attack on the Capitol.
“The majority of them are crippled with fear,” Crow said in an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC. “I had a lot of conversations with my fellow Republicans last night, and a few of them broke down in tears – saying they were afraid for their lives if they voted for this impeachment.
Tim Alberta, chief political correspondent for Politico, discovered in his own report that “Crow was right. “
“I know a number of members * want * to impeach, but fear that voting will result in them or their families being murdered,” writes Alberta. “Many Republicans in the House received death threats last week.”
This fear did not only affect the impeachment vote. Representative Pete Meijer (R-MI) said he personally knew several House Republicans who wanted to vote to certify Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020 but feared for their lives if they chose to do so.
“I had colleagues who, when it came time to acknowledge the reality and vote to certify Arizona and Pennsylvania to the Electoral College, knew deep in their hearts that they should have voted to certify, but some had legitimate concerns. for the safety of their families, ”Meijer told Reason magazine’s Matt Welch. “They felt that this vote would put their families at risk.”
The comments from Crow, Alta., And Meijer illustrate a devastating truth: the attack on Capitol Hill was, in large part, a success.
The violent seizure of the Capitol demonstrated to lawmakers that meeting Donald Trump literally puts them in the crosshairs. This was explicitly part of the point for some: In online comments cited in an FBI document on violent threats before the attack, one person wrote that “Congress needs to hear the glass shatter, the doors open.” .
“We get our president or we die,” they added. “NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
Convincing Congress to install Trump for another presidential term has always been an unattainable goal. But influencing lawmakers to vote differently in the future, more in line with the Trumpist movement, was not.
In weak and young democracies, especially those that have recently experienced civil war, you often see a phenomenon called ‘electoral violence’, in which armed groups use intimidation and force to coerce voters into supporting their political parties. favorite.
In the United States, we seem to be seeing the emergence of something more properly called “legislative violence.” Far-right protesters both in Washington and in state capitals are using both threats and actual violence to coerce members of their own broad political faction, the Republican Party, to follow their line. In a country where guns are ubiquitous and easily accessible through legal means, lawmakers have good reason to take these threats seriously.
Of course, electoral and legislative violence is antithetical to democracy. They reproduce the political conditions of an authoritarian state, where fear of physical violence prevents citizens and government officials from having a genuine voice in their government. It is the antithesis of the democratic ideal of self-government, its replacement by the rule of the most ruthless and brutal.
It is alarming that this is happening in the United States today. And there is very good reason to believe that the success of these tactics – that the rioters managed to take the Capitol and frightened the elected officials – will lead them to be tried again.
A recent Politico article describes an anonymous GOP House member returning home after the attack on the Capitol, expecting support after his ordeal from voters. Instead, he remembers being greeted with a striking chorus from his followers.
“Do you think Congress got the message?”
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