Letter to Lindsey Graham, Republican contortionist

I did actually send this letter to Sen. Graham, although I don't expect him to read it.

Dear Senator Graham,

Before Donald Trump was elected, you were quite frank in your evaluation of his character.  I find I am intensely interested in what inspired you to transform yourself from his critic to one of his most vocal champions.  Did it involve days of wrestling with your conscience, or was it only a moment, and easy?  What was the prize that made it worth the price?

Was your turnabout “aspirational” (to use Sen. Collins’ word)?  Did you hope that the gravity of the office of President would cause him to rise above his character and become more wise, more kind, more serious?  You must have recognized almost immediately, as so many of us did, that the international spotlight and the power he was given only served to exacerbate his worst qualities, and that he has still, to this day, never read the Constitution, whose principles he - and you - took an oath to protect.

I’m sure you’ve heard the speculation that Trump must have something on you (as well as on Sen. Cruz and the other Republicans who went from repudiating to praising him), some way to blackmail you into supporting him.  But I don’t believe that.  You are too eager to put on this four year show of support for it to have been coerced.

Was it the proximity to his power which drew you to his side?  After all, Henry Kissinger said long ago that power is an aphrodisiac.  Or was it fear of his power, when you saw the retribution with which he responds to every critic?  Again, you seem far too enthusiastic in your support for it to have been simply going along to save yourself.

Did you think you had taken the pulse of the country and convinced yourself you were serving the will of the people?  No, that doesn’t seem likely, since Clinton won the popular vote in 2016.  Was your rationale that a Senator must serve the sitting President, not matter what?  No, it couldn’t be that, given how gleefully the Senate obstructed President Obama’s efforts.

You must have hoped that the country would forget your past criticisms of this dangerously flawed man and accept  your praise of him as sincere.  If only it weren’t for that pesky ad produced by Republican Voters Against Trump, it’s possible that we might have.  But alas, it is recorded for all to hear that you believe the Republican party lost its moral authority to govern the people when it did not reject Donald Trump. 

Also on record is that you believe Joe Biden to be “as good a man as God ever created”.  So how will you conduct yourself in these next four years?  Or in the next several months, for that matter?  Are you going to continue to trample on your own best instincts and your own integrity by continuing to champion Trump?  Are you going to join Mitch McConnell in giving President Biden as difficult a term as the Senate gave President Obama?  There is time to recover your soul, Senator Graham.  That time is now.  It’s not too late for you.