Incensed To Censure

To anyone wondering why the hell the Republican Party is still so enamored with Donald Trump in the wake of.... well, everything...  consider what happened Monday night here in my home state of North Carolina. 

The North Carolina Republican Party's central committee voted Monday night to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict Donald Trump after Trump's impeachment trial. 

"The NCGOP agrees with the strong majority of Republicans in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate that the Democrat-led attempt to impeach a former President lies outside the United States Constitution," the committee wrote in a statement after its unanimous vote.

 Burr replied, "It's a sad day for North Carolina Republicans. My party's leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of our great nation."  

Never mind that most constitutional scholars concur that the United States Constitution does allow for the impeachment of government officers in or out of office.  The founding fathers at the Constitution Convention clearly did not give a President a get out of jail free card by fucking things up on his way out the door.

Sen. Burr defended his vote."The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of Crimes and Misdemeanors. Therefore, I have voted to convict.”

North Carolina’s GOP Chair Michael Whatley said Burr's vote “in a trial that he declared unconstitutional is shocking and disappointing.”

As I have said before, it's a standard go-to for Republicans to whine that something is "unconstitutional" for anything they don't like or agree with.  

Let's cut to the chase: the United States Constitution has fuck all to do with this rush by state GOP organizations to attack Congress persons who dared to hold Donald Trump accountable. 

It's all about loyalty to one man over all other considerations, loyalty to a man who has a 70+ million base of suckers engaged and enraged and the Republican Party is too scared of ticking them off further by offending Trump.