Riots, revolution, or the rule of law?

“America Fully Destroyed by Democrats. Lock and load.” That was one message among thousands that flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for “riots, revolution and violent retribution.”

That’s troubling stuff coming from people who were at the Capitol rioting on Jan. 6 or who have cheered their wild, willing to kill compatriots since. I take them seriously as any reasonable person must.

Beyond absurdity, there is threat and danger. There are emails calling for execution of the judge, attacks on jurors, of “shooting leftys,” of civil war.

Because of Trump’s irresponsible rant and babble, following his conviction, peoples’ lives are in danger. “Lock and load” are a likely prelude to “aim and fire”

But the unseemly dash by Republicans to support Trump has ruined my career as pundit, prophet, and sought after dinner companion.

If I didn’t love seeing my name in print, I would ask The Gazette to suspend this column until after the Republican convention. Or they could keep my name, and just print a column of question marks inside quotes. I can’t figure out what is going on. I can’t believe most of what I’m seeing and reading about Republicans.

Here’s a report that rattles my cage: “Almost no Republican has stood up to suggest Trump should not be the party’s presidential candidate for the November election — in fact, some have sought to hasten his nomination.”

The revulsion I thought “guilty” would bring has not come and a revolt at the Republican Convention, I expected, won’t either. I am a prophet at a loss.

Mike Pence and Nikki Haley and Chuck Grassley are silent. Republicans who questioned Trump’s innocence or his role as their presidential nominee whisper today at the bottom of their lungs.

Haley, before the verdict, had already caved and said she would support him at the convention, not oppose or stay silent and neutral as I had hoped.

Even Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, a Trump critic, and candidate for the U.S. Senate in a swing state, was almost silent. He, like others who had ever spoken honestly about Trump, was “urged” to leave the party by the wild right.

What is true across the country is certainly true here. Republican leaders in Iowa accept the Trump charge that a trial that convicted him was a “sham.”

When a member of Senate Judiciary Committee, aka Grassley, calls the Trump trial a sham, he does a serious disservice to his career. He becomes a sham senator. He must know that Joe Biden did not instigate the trial, that the prosecutor followed proper procedure, the judge was not biased, the jury was thorough and the trial was fair. If he said so, if he spoke the truth, he would go down in history as the Senator who spoke truth while under great pressure to lie. A profile in courage label would forever be attached to his name. I hope Republicans here will urge him to do so.

Without that, he is no longer a thoughtful voice, but a simple mouthpiece for Donald Trump’s fantasy life, and an insult to every decent Iowa Republican who has ever voted for him.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.