As the politics of Donald Trump’s unprecedented emergency declaration unravel, the crisis at the border has unfolded to show tremendous humanitarian issues, most of which the U.S. has been no help to. A Sunday, March 3, story in the New York Times claimed that women are raped at staggering numbers, but due to the aloofness of the United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), they largely go unreported.
On the American side of the border, there is a sexual violence emergency. Smugglers are largely the perpetrators, but brutal rapes have been documented by CBP agents and officials in detention facilities. Perhaps the most shameful part of this is how largely underreported it is by the media. Instead, cable news is playing with Trump’s fear-mongering nationalistic speeches about immigration and his overarching use of executive power in order to build the wall.
Four Republican senators have had enough. They are threatening to block Trump’s resolution to build his border wall. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has been a swing vote on more than one occasion, did not vote for Trump in 2016 as she felt that he did not hold core Republican values, or inclusive views, on top of his grotesque attacks against John McCain and Megyn Kelly. She is also facing a tough re-election in 2020, but remains undecided in endorsing Trump.
Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski has a similar record. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a strict constitutionalist, has also declined to give Trump authority, as he feels the president is overreaching executive power. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis joined him for similar reasoning, though both rarely come out against Trump.
In general, Republican senators vote with Trump upward of over 90 percent of the time. Maybe naively, I think that the average senator has a moral high ground that does not coincide with 90 percent of Trump’s political moves.
This president is unparalleled compared to past presidents. His attacks on the free press; close relationship with foreign adversaries; abandonment of our allies; and xenophobic, racist and sexist behavior make him more than just a Republican. The man is an abomination of the country’s moral character.
What saddens the situation further is that I feel as though most Republicans agree with me behind closed doors. Mitt Romney was a leader of the “Never Trump” movement in the Republican Party, citing that he could not look his grandchildren in the face if Trump was president.
Now that he has been elected to the Senate, he has been hesitant to speak out, besides the grueling op-ed that he wrote about Trump’s deficiencies before he formally took to the Senate chamber.
The news for “Never Trump” Republicans is that the children being separated and the woman being sexually harassed and assaulted at the border do not care about your re-election campaigns. Their lives are in turmoil. It is your job to show some courage, a common trait found in a leader. Speak up for what you know is right, rather than continuing to be the puppets of Trump.
