Republican silence excuses Trump's attempt to overthrow the government
In a blog post by author Greg Mitchell about the movie “Oppenheimer,” he mentions “psychic numbing,” a term invented by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton to describe our collective inability to absorb atomic lessons.
“The movement from appropriate nuclear fear to complacency has to do with what I call psychic numbing, a diminished capacity or inclination to feel,” Lifton says.
The news about the trice-indicted Donald Trump may create a similar shift from fear to complacency. Psychic numbing about how Trump attempted to overthrow the United States government is as much a threat to our nation as nuclear weapons are a threat to the future of mankind.
One way to counter psychic numbing about Trump is to read the latest indictment, which describes what he did in horrifying detail. This is a link to the full text.
Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the lies he told in his desperate bid to overthrow the government are not a matter in which guilt or innocence has to be proven in court.
His nonstop lies are part of the public record, along with his efforts to destroy faith in fair elections and stay in power despite his rejection by American voters.
He has been aided in this enterprise by the Republican Party, which is complicit in Trump’s power grab and refuses to admit that Trump attempted a coup.
Republican politicians and their apologists are guilty of staying silent or making excuses, allowing Trump to lie without fear of banishment.
The Alaska Republican Party and leading Alaska Republicans, with the lone exception of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, are in lockstep with Trump. Murkowski was disowned by the party prior to her 2022 reelection, but the party rescinded the fatwa after she won.
Murkowski released a statement saying it’s clear that Trump tried to overturn the election, an euphemism for an attempted coup.
Sen. Dan Sullivan and Gov. Mike Dunleavy continue to stand out for their political cowardice and their silence about Trump’s lies. They support Trump, even though he tried to overthrow the government, the ultimate in federal overreach.
This reality should not be clouded no matter how far psychic numbing spreads.
Sullivan, who always seems to find an excuse for evasion, is spending a week on Marine Corps reserve duty. One of his federal employees told the Anchorage Daily News he doesn’t have a chance to comment on this because he’s too busy.
Sullivan’s job in the reserves is serving as chief of staff for the reserves for the Marine Forces Pacific Command in Hawaii.
Sullivan is not named in the Trump indictment, but there is a reference that may be about him on page 41 that deserves more examination by Alaska news organizations.
In essence, the question is whether Trump believed that Sullivan might try to assist his overthrow of the government.
Sullivan hasn’t talked about it, except to claim that this was all about a wrong phone number placed by Rudy Giuliani on Jan. 6.
The indictment charges that after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Co-Conspirator 1 and Trump “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them, based on knowingly false claims of election fraud, to delay the certification. . .”
Co-Conspirator 1 is Giuliani.
The indictment charges that Trump told Giuliani to call six U.S. senators to “attempt to enlist in further delaying the certification” of the election.
Co-Conspirator 1 is Rudy Giuliani, who called Sen. Dan Sullivan and others, trying to get help in delaying the election certification on Jan. 6, 2021. Co-Conspirator 6, who looked up the phone numbers for the senators, has yet to be identified. The voicemail quoted was left on Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s phone.
Last December, the final report of the House Jan. 6 committee said that Giuliani called Sullivan twice that night as part of a series of calls to delay approving Biden’s election.
After publication of that report, Sullivan speechwriter Amanda Coyne told the Anchorage Daily News that “Giuliani’s incoherent voice message said something about delaying the certification.” She said Sullivan never spoke to Guiliani.
Sullivan didn’t listen to the “incoherent voice message" for two days because of the chaotic situation, Coyne said.
“When he was able to listen, he realized they were from Giuliani. Giuliani actually had the wrong number, as the message made clear the calls were intended for another Senator, not Sen. Sullivan.”
On March 7, Jake Tapper of CNN asked Sullivan about the reference in the Jan. 6 report and Sullivan said again that the phone call was not meant for him, but for another senator.
From a CNN interview March 7 in which Sen. Dan Sullivan said Giuliani called him by mistake. Sullivan said he “barely even understood” what Giuliani was saying.
The unanswered question is whether Trump told Giuliani to call Sullivan or if, as Sullivan insists, Giuliani called Sullivan by mistake. Twice.
The Trump indictment says that Co-Conspirator 6, who remains unidentified, looked up the senators’ numbers for those that Giuliani planned to call.
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