In southern Indiana this morning I drove past three yards where Confederate flags flew, two with trump/pence flags. This afternoon trump was acquitted by the Senate, although the majority voted to convict. Seven members of the Republican Party voted Guilty.

The values of this iteration of the Republican Party are warped. They find impeachable the act of receiving oral sex in the Oval Office, but give a “pass” to a would-be dictator who sought to overturn the results of an election to continue to cling to power.

As I’ve written, the GOP has progressive roots as the pro-abolition party. The progressive stand on issues continued until the GOP began to pursue the “Southern strategy” and court what had been the solid, racist votes the Democratic Party held from the Civil War.

Racists still are a minority in the USA, but they control one of the two major political parties. We have to marginalize these forces of hatred as they have sought to suppress the will of the majority via gerrymandering and outright voter suppression.

Again, to oppose this iteration of the GOP is one necessary step to fight hatred. Another is to seize the GOP from the people who jacked the GOP a decade ago. There is no GOP platform. You can make it as progressive as you want.

One other thing of which I think we can be fairly certain. trump could not have been impeached because he received oral sex in The Oval Office. For that matter, I doubt if he received any such attention in any part of The White House.