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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSen Sherrod Brown: In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear
One journalist remarked to me, How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?
By Sherrod Brown
Mr. Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio.
Feb. 5, 2020
Not guilty. Not guilty.
In the United States Senate, like in many spheres of life, fear does the business.
Think back to the fall of 2002, just a few weeks before that years crucial midterm elections, when the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq was up for a vote. A year after the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of members of the House and the Senate were about to face the voters of a country still traumatized by terrorism.
Senator Patty Murray, a thoughtful Democrat from Washington State, still remembers the fear that dominated the Senate leading up to the Iraq war.
You could feel it then, she told me, and you can feel that fear now chiefly among Senate Republicans.
For those of us who, from the start, questioned the wisdom of the Iraq war, our sense of isolation surely wasnt much different from the loneliness felt in the 1950s by Senator Herbert Lehman of New York, who confronted Joe McCarthys demagogy only to be abandoned by so many of his colleagues. Nor was it so different from what Senator George McGovern must have felt when he announced his early opposition to the Vietnam War and was then labeled a traitor by many inside and outside of Congress.
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Roland99
(53,342 posts)malaise
(268,724 posts)The fun has just begun
Grasswire2
(13,565 posts)krissey
(1,205 posts)sheshe2
(83,669 posts)They all campaign on "fear the left" and they are the ones that are forever fearful.
They are cowed and spineless. None deserve the seat they hold.
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)I was at one time hoping he'd run for President in 2020 but don't blame him for waiting or passing entirely.
TheRealNorth
(9,471 posts)But I understand the calculus of wanting to hold onto his Senate seat, because we need to get Moscow Mitch out of the majority.
crickets
(25,952 posts)What about the genuine fears of your constituents?
at140
(6,110 posts)of tRump among repuglicans. They are for ever fearful of being primaried.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,264 posts)spineless cowards -- see GOP
walker59
(36 posts)(/11 resulted in building collapsing and people dying. In this case, it's just Trump. These two things are not equal by a long shot, so anyone who is afraid of Trump or his core supporters is really just a gigantic (help me out Rude).
rainin
(3,010 posts)Bill Barr's Justice Department. We assume they are afraid of losing their jobs, but they may be afraid for their lives or the lives of their families. Who knows?
jmg257
(11,996 posts)tinrobot
(10,888 posts)They worry:
Will the hosts on Fox attack me?
Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?
Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?
So, they are more afraid of corporate owned media and Russian-controlled Twitter bots than they are of upholding their oaths to the voters and the Constitution.
Bunch of chickenshits.
Salviati
(6,008 posts)They are all complicit. History cannot judge them harshly enough.
2naSalit
(86,369 posts)TruckFump
(5,812 posts)All the rest are chicken shits that will not stand up to the Nazi POS in the WH.
Response to Dennis Donovan (Original post)
Fresh_Start This message was self-deleted by its author.
SamKnause
(13,088 posts)I don't give a damn if they are afraid of Trump or of getting reelected.
If you give up your morals or beliefs to keep your job you are scum.
If you do this on behalf of the American people you are traitorous scum.
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...they have their fancy pensions. They have health care for life. Maybe they can't plug into the cash-cow machine that is 16th street, but they'll manage to find lucrative positions. Do they care *that* much what the Goebbels News Network says about them...?
apcalc
(4,462 posts)fear of hanging themselves, jumping out of a 3rd story window, fear of falling down a long flight of stairs, eating and drinking poisoned food, fear of committing suicide ...and the like...
keithbvadu2
(36,678 posts)mitch96
(13,872 posts)Go sell used cars or something....... or maybe realestate...??
m
tblue37
(65,227 posts)Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)I'm not buying it.
bucolic_frolic
(43,064 posts)to lay bare insolvency and the beholden
Perseus
(4,341 posts)something to hide and they have been compromised. If you are not guilty of any wrongdoing then why would you fear a jackass like trump?
Democrats, keep the house, get the senate then investigate each one of them.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)They could all resign right now and live out the rest of their lives quite nicely in the private sector or even as retirees. Most of them are set for life. The fact that they sold their souls to protect this traitor and hatemonger is unforgivable. I hope that karma comes back to bite them in the ass.
volstork
(5,399 posts)A dark day, but motivating for those of us on the correct side of history.
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)not global warming, not water shortages, not racial injustice, not income inequality, not gender inequality, not lack of affordable health care, not gun violence. Ad, fucking, nauseam.
They only fear that which they perceive can hurt them in the short term.
They give no shits for the long term.
Understood.
aggiesal
(8,907 posts)The chicken$hit bastards.
GOP Mafia is what they are!
GOP=Greedy One Percent
keithbvadu2
(36,678 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,702 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,396 posts)They made their beds and now they will lay in them.
AdamGG
(1,287 posts)He appeals to progressives and rust belt blue collar people and IMO would have been the strongest nominee. No Republican has EVER won the Presidency without carrying Ohio.
Vivienne235729
(3,377 posts)Own asses. At the expense of their neighbors. Their country. On their deathbed I hope they fully realize their ineptitude at being a decent human beings. BASTARDS!!!
dustyscamp
(2,223 posts)Skittles
(153,122 posts)people still die EVERY DAY because of the Iraq war vote, and they did NOT LEARN FROM THAT
*SICKENING*