Why can’t the GOP at least stand up for the US Constitution?

Every elected public official, member of the armed services, federal employee and many other government employees throughout the United States swear an oath of office that includes a promise to support and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. But what does that actually mean? How can one be an enemy to the Constitution and to the concept of rule of law?

On Dec. 3, former President Donald Trump posted a message on his Truth Social network, once again trumpeting his fantastical fever dream notion that there were crimes committed in the 2020 election. But this time he went beyond the ravings of a narcissistic egomaniac and stepped way over the line (“Charles M. Blow: Herschel Walker’s loss in Georgia is really a failure for Donald Trump,” Dec. 7). In his tirade he wrote, “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

This is what a domestic enemy of the Constitution advocates. This is what a domestic enemy of the Constitution does. A former president of the United States is openly advocating, in writing, for the “termination” of the constitutional framework that has stood and sustained this country for almost two and a half centuries, warts and all.

What is more distressing than the open call for a Supreme Leader Trump is the deafening silence emanating from the Republican Party. Their de facto leader is no longer bound by his oath “to support and defend” the U.S. Constitution, but the elected members of Congress and state governments certainly are. Through the absence of their action to uphold their oaths of office and “support and defend” the Constitution, are they also to be considered a domestic enemy of the Constitution, or are elected Republicans afraid to say, “enough” while merely providing “aid and comfort” to a domestic enemy?