By Billy Webster
The South Carolina Republican Delegation has embarrassed itself mightily in voting for Jim Jordan to be Speaker of the House. It was a pitiful show of cowardice, something we have come to expect from Rep. William Timmons. Even though Jordan ultimately did not prevail, this is what/who they voted for…most of them three times.
Jordan is the guy who was intimately involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States. He is the guy who urged Vice President Pence to refuse to count lawful electoral votes. He is the guy who faces allegations from multiple former Ohio State wrestlers who say that Jordan, while a coach at the university, failed to protect them from a team doctor who sexually abused at least 177 students from 1979-1997.
This is also the guy who would have been third in line to assume the powers of the presidency if the president and the vice-president were incapacitated.
The three-ring circus that is the Republican Caucus would be a funny thing to behold were their actions not so deadly dangerous.
I lived in Germany as a 21/22 year old in 1979 and 1980. Germany was only one generation – barely 30 years – removed from World War II and the unimaginable horrors perpetrated by Hitler. Most of the families that I knew well had first hand memories of wartime and most of those families had fathers or grandfathers who fought for Nazi Germany. As I reflect now on what they told me, on the language they used and on the regrets – regrets in not standing up against tyranny while they still could – that they carried with them, it is nothing short of chilling to see the parallels in our current political environment.
Some will be deeply offended by a comparison of Trump to Hitler but the comparison stands nonetheless. Hitler’s vicious diatribes in Nuremberg and Berlin, extolling the virtues of Naziism and excoriating the Jews, reached tens of thousands of Germans on the radio. Trump’s ALL CAPS screeds on Twitter (now X) reach millions with the same hate and vitriol that Hitler used. Hitler called for the death and imprisonment of his opponents. On his Truth Social site, Trump called for the ‘execution’ of one of his top generals and proposed the incarceration of his political opponents.
Substitute ‘immigrants’ for ‘Jews’ (or don’t, given the huge uptick in hate crimes that we have seen since Hamas’ attack on Israel) and Trump’s praise for tyrants around the world (Kim Jong Il, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin) for Hitler’s praise for Mussolini, Stalin and the tyrants of that era and you begin to approach the danger that this MAGA hysteria poses. America is no different from any other country on the planet. When evil becomes ingrained in the government and good people look the other way, terrible things can happen – like an insurrection to overthrow Democracy. And worse. God forbid history might repeat itself in the United States of America.
Those votes for Jordan were just that. Votes for insurrection and authoritarianism. Votes against democracy and democratic institutions. That’s what this delegation chose. A contemptible and dangerous choice.
Billy Webster is an educator, entrepreneur, and civic leader. He has been appointed to various positions by two presidents – George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, serving in the Agency for International Development, The Department of Education, and the White House, among other postings. A resident of Spartanburg, Webster has served on numerous boards for organizations serving the Upstate.