Trump gang wants to erase the spirit of John McCain, destroy public service

A purge at the FBI, the firing of 30 Jan. 6 prosecutors by the U.S. Attorney in D.C., the sleazy effort by Elon Musk to reduce the federal workforce — all of this comes from the authoritarian handbook: Get rid of honest public servants and replace them with loyalists who will let you get away with murder.

Republicans hold up red herrings about the FBI to say there needs to be a house cleaning because the bureau had become “politicized.” Of course, they’re not talking about the harm former director James Comey did to the Hillary Clinton campaign just before the 2016 election and Trump’s electoral victory. They’re talking about the bureau’s investigations of Trump and his crooked pals. Anyone involved in those matters — or the investigations and prosecutions of now-pardoned Jan. 6 rioters — must go.

This is hardcore fascist stuff.

There’s no doubt that, once this purge takes place, federal law enforcement will become staffed with MAGA hacks instead of well-meaning men and women who took jobs as FBI agents and prosecutors to serve the nation and not any one president.

There’s a lot about the second presidency of Trump that is disturbing. But purging federal law enforcement sets up an anything-goes scenario for the felon president and those in his administration. Should the Commerce Secretary be suspected of taking bribes, who will investigate? Should some of the pardoned Jan. 6 rioters decide to beat up demonstrators near the White House, will the Trumpified Justice Department do anything about it?

And, should Trump’s Attorney General or FBI Director leave job positions unfilled — a likely scenario given the scale of the purge — then many crimes will never be investigated. You can count on that.

What we’re seeing is a full-scale attack on public service. Trump and his wealthy supporters hate the government because the government represents the enforcement of laws and regulations and the paying of benefits to the poor, disabled and elderly. All of that constitutes a costly inconvenience to the plutocracy that has taken control of Washington.

There are many reasons why the late John McCain, the Republican senator and war hero, spins in his grave at the Naval Academy in Annapolis: The second coming of Trump, the obsequiousness of Lindsey Graham, the outrageous pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, Trump’s denigration of the military. On top of all that, McCain, who answered his nation’s call to serve twice, would be appalled that Republicans have chosen to demonize and destroy public servants and the ideal of public service. 

John McCain died in 2018, and now the MAGA Republican Party has erased his spirit. 

Every American should be outraged at this fascist attack on the civil service and federal law enforcement. That’s exactly what it is, and it brings us one step closer to an authoritarian government fully enabled by Republicans in Congress.