Please, No More Circular Firing Squads For Now

Lev Radin/Pacific Press via ZUMA

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Just to get this off my chest, I hope I don’t have to sit through too many rounds of griping from various slightly different factions of the progressive movement about how impeachment has been handled well or badly by Nancy Pelosi and, more generally, by Democrats in Congress. Whatever else you can say, none of this is their fault.

It’s the fault of a Republican Party that went over the edge of partisan rage and destruction long ago. They’re the ones who tried at every turn to prevent President Obama from rescuing the economy after he took office. They’re the ones who were willing to die on the hill of protecting tax cuts for the rich. They’re the ones who have relentlessly gerrymandered and suppressed the black vote because that’s good for Republicans. They’re the ones who spent years trying to tar Hillary Clinton over Benghazi. They’re the ones who stonewalled the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. They’re the ones who got so caught up in their own loathing of Hillary Clinton that they turned away from the pussy tape and voted for Trump anyway. They’re the ones who spent their first year in office desperately trying to take away health care for the poor and working classes.

Democrats don’t always cover themselves in glory. But Trump is in office because the Republican Party put him there, and he’s gotten away with everything so far because the Republican Party has let him. No one should ever forget that.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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