Last week Congressman Jim Jordan slipped into town for an Ashley Hinson fundraiser. This is the same Jim Jordan who during Donald Trump's presidency, sought to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He still refuses to answer a Congressional subpoena served on him to testify about his actions leading up to the insurrection and during the event.
To most Americans it is readily apparent that the words and actions of Trump and his cohorts were responsible for the storming of the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and seize power illegally. Their actions resulted in countless injuries to law enforcement officers, death to several and a self-inflicted wound to our democracy.
The Republican Party, the self-labeled party of law and order and back the blue has shamelessly attempted to whitewash its actions and pretend the issue just goes away. Jim Jordan and his ilk are not patriots, they are traitors.
Jordan’s resume includes being an election denier and supporter of nationwide lawsuits to challenge the 2020 election results. He also voted to not certify the Electoral College results at the time. He and his type continue to perpetuate the myth that Trump won the election and they travel intentionally to places like Iowa where they easily find moldable minds to perpetuate their charade. Shameful.
Today, Trump continues to escape true prosecution. With their recent ruling on Presidential Immunity, a new majority of the Supreme Court is now sympathetic to Trump’s misdeeds, and this gift to the “Leader of the Insurrection,” is exactly what Trump needed to keep his circus on the road until the November election.
With the help of fellow Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley whose complicity in the decline of Supreme Court ethics and integrity is now well documented, Trump has been able to change the make-up of the Supreme Court to the detriment of our nation.
Grassley’s actions include the blockage of President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. His refusal to hold hearings for Garland then held hearings for the controversial Justice Brett Kavanaugh and find time at the 11th hour for fellow idealogue Amy Coney Barrett continues to be the ultimate in political hypocrisy.
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Today, he opposes the “Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act,” knowing full well that several sitting Justices would immediately be in violation and have to disqualify themselves from recent rulings because of their conflicts of interests.
I first met Grassley in the 1980s on a rail train to an Iowa – Iowa State football Game. The Reagan Revolution was in full bloom and Grassley was beginning the trajectory of his career. We soon launched into a pleasant conversation about armyworms that were ravaging Iowa crops at the time. I had been clipping newspaper articles on the topic for a congressional candidate so I could talk a good game, city kid and farmer in the bar car, magic. Fast forward to today when grift and graft has filtered its way to the highest court in our country and Republicans like Grassley who could make a difference, look the other way or claim politics as their reason for doing nothing. What was once a court that the public held in high esteem has digressed to a body filled with ethical malfeasance and corruption, all occurring on Grassley’s watch.
The short-term memory loss of Republican officials who fail to hold accountable a former president who knowingly and recklessly mishandled and withheld top secret documents in cardboard boxes in his country club’s bathroom and then went on to obstruct the investigation is heartbreaking. Any American other than Trump would now be serving a very long prison sentence at a maximum-security federal prison underground, but Trump? National Security? Crickets.
It is tough for me to put a finger on any one particular reason for the unlikely shift of the Republican Party to the MAGA Party, one now of conspiracy theorists and election deniers who embrace autocrats and a Russian dictator. But the roots of Republican rage against our democracy have been simmering for quite some time. Alienated rust belt workers who are losing their jobs based on factors beyond their control see in Trump and those who serve him their last chance for the American Dream.
As demonstrated at a recent Linn County event by Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kauffman, Republicans nationwide, using race, immigration, gun control and gay rights to further drive a wedge between Americans, Republicans have simply played a game of math. If enough hate, rage and resentment can be generated to gin up their base in a polarized electorate, then maybe they will have a chance at a majority at the polls in the rapidly changing America of today.
What haunts me is why good, intelligent people, some I even like, continue to engage in this deception? It is simply beyond me. Are they afraid of Trump and his minions? Afraid of being primaried by a conspiracy theorist? Or is it just a simple lust for power? The grift? Has it become too much of their fiber and soul that they have no problem putting ethics and integrity aside for the future of our country?
Some can argue that the election of Trump was a fluke. His only interest at the time was to promote his family and his brand, which he did, but today he is unhinged and his campaign is simply a vehicle of hate, spewing nonsense and serving only to keep him out of jail. Elected leaders all know this.
In Iowa, Republicans control all the budgets, and to their credit, when disaster hits home, they have been here and worked hard behind the scenes to help. That being said, you cannot put a price tag on the destruction that they have enabled by their unethical enablement of Trump. It was and continues to be wrong and has done a disservice to the offices in which they serve and to the founding principles of our democracy.
People like Jim Jordan are not to be praised, their self-interests harm us all. Holding those like him accountable for their misdeeds is needed to bridge the nation’s current polarized divide. That healing process is needed so that government can get back to solving problems and doing the work that really matters to people.
The most fundamental part of this process will require elected leaders to start each morning when they look into the mirror, to be honest with themselves and ask the question of “what side of our country’s democracy am I on?”
Dale Todd is a four-term member of the Cedar Rapids City Council.
www.thegazette.com
To most Americans it is readily apparent that the words and actions of Trump and his cohorts were responsible for the storming of the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and seize power illegally. Their actions resulted in countless injuries to law enforcement officers, death to several and a self-inflicted wound to our democracy.
The Republican Party, the self-labeled party of law and order and back the blue has shamelessly attempted to whitewash its actions and pretend the issue just goes away. Jim Jordan and his ilk are not patriots, they are traitors.
Jordan’s resume includes being an election denier and supporter of nationwide lawsuits to challenge the 2020 election results. He also voted to not certify the Electoral College results at the time. He and his type continue to perpetuate the myth that Trump won the election and they travel intentionally to places like Iowa where they easily find moldable minds to perpetuate their charade. Shameful.
Today, Trump continues to escape true prosecution. With their recent ruling on Presidential Immunity, a new majority of the Supreme Court is now sympathetic to Trump’s misdeeds, and this gift to the “Leader of the Insurrection,” is exactly what Trump needed to keep his circus on the road until the November election.
With the help of fellow Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley whose complicity in the decline of Supreme Court ethics and integrity is now well documented, Trump has been able to change the make-up of the Supreme Court to the detriment of our nation.
Grassley’s actions include the blockage of President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. His refusal to hold hearings for Garland then held hearings for the controversial Justice Brett Kavanaugh and find time at the 11th hour for fellow idealogue Amy Coney Barrett continues to be the ultimate in political hypocrisy.
ADVERTISING
Today, he opposes the “Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act,” knowing full well that several sitting Justices would immediately be in violation and have to disqualify themselves from recent rulings because of their conflicts of interests.
I first met Grassley in the 1980s on a rail train to an Iowa – Iowa State football Game. The Reagan Revolution was in full bloom and Grassley was beginning the trajectory of his career. We soon launched into a pleasant conversation about armyworms that were ravaging Iowa crops at the time. I had been clipping newspaper articles on the topic for a congressional candidate so I could talk a good game, city kid and farmer in the bar car, magic. Fast forward to today when grift and graft has filtered its way to the highest court in our country and Republicans like Grassley who could make a difference, look the other way or claim politics as their reason for doing nothing. What was once a court that the public held in high esteem has digressed to a body filled with ethical malfeasance and corruption, all occurring on Grassley’s watch.
The short-term memory loss of Republican officials who fail to hold accountable a former president who knowingly and recklessly mishandled and withheld top secret documents in cardboard boxes in his country club’s bathroom and then went on to obstruct the investigation is heartbreaking. Any American other than Trump would now be serving a very long prison sentence at a maximum-security federal prison underground, but Trump? National Security? Crickets.
It is tough for me to put a finger on any one particular reason for the unlikely shift of the Republican Party to the MAGA Party, one now of conspiracy theorists and election deniers who embrace autocrats and a Russian dictator. But the roots of Republican rage against our democracy have been simmering for quite some time. Alienated rust belt workers who are losing their jobs based on factors beyond their control see in Trump and those who serve him their last chance for the American Dream.
As demonstrated at a recent Linn County event by Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kauffman, Republicans nationwide, using race, immigration, gun control and gay rights to further drive a wedge between Americans, Republicans have simply played a game of math. If enough hate, rage and resentment can be generated to gin up their base in a polarized electorate, then maybe they will have a chance at a majority at the polls in the rapidly changing America of today.
What haunts me is why good, intelligent people, some I even like, continue to engage in this deception? It is simply beyond me. Are they afraid of Trump and his minions? Afraid of being primaried by a conspiracy theorist? Or is it just a simple lust for power? The grift? Has it become too much of their fiber and soul that they have no problem putting ethics and integrity aside for the future of our country?
Some can argue that the election of Trump was a fluke. His only interest at the time was to promote his family and his brand, which he did, but today he is unhinged and his campaign is simply a vehicle of hate, spewing nonsense and serving only to keep him out of jail. Elected leaders all know this.
In Iowa, Republicans control all the budgets, and to their credit, when disaster hits home, they have been here and worked hard behind the scenes to help. That being said, you cannot put a price tag on the destruction that they have enabled by their unethical enablement of Trump. It was and continues to be wrong and has done a disservice to the offices in which they serve and to the founding principles of our democracy.
People like Jim Jordan are not to be praised, their self-interests harm us all. Holding those like him accountable for their misdeeds is needed to bridge the nation’s current polarized divide. That healing process is needed so that government can get back to solving problems and doing the work that really matters to people.
The most fundamental part of this process will require elected leaders to start each morning when they look into the mirror, to be honest with themselves and ask the question of “what side of our country’s democracy am I on?”
Dale Todd is a four-term member of the Cedar Rapids City Council.
Opinion: Which side of democracy are you on?
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio smiles as he is introduced during Ashley Hinson’s BBQ Bash at Hawkeye Downs in …
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