Instead of calling out a president’s treason, the Republican Party gaslights SLO County

The Republican Party in San Luis Obispo County — like its leadership across the country — is teetering on the precipice of moral bankruptcy.

Even in the face of a seditious attack on the U.S. Capitol by footsoldiers incited by President Trump, the local party refuses to even consider that its standard bearer in the White House might have committed impeachable high crimes against our nation.

Yes, it’s finally taken the bare minimum steps of admitting the election is over while calling out the violent assault and occupation by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday, according to a statement posted at Cal Coast News.

But when it comes to holding those responsible for enabling the insurrection?

They’ve washed their hands of that uncomfortable duty.

Instead, the SLO County GOP has taken this opportunity not to finally get on the right side of history but instead to remain steadfastly engaged in an attempt to gaslight San Luis Obispo County residents into believing something other than what they’ve seen with their own eyes.

While acknowledging that the 2020 Electoral College vote has been “resolved,” the party says, “The curtain has not fallen on the need for a careful, thorough investigation of all legitimate questions concerning the integrity of this election. These concerns have not been conclusively resolved in the short period from Nov. 3, 2020, to the present.”

On the contrary, investigations, hearings, some 60 court rulings and recounts, along with vote certifications by 50 states, the Electoral College and Congress, would definitively suggest otherwise.

The curtain has very much fallen, and repeatedly so.

The statement continues: “Such investigations by the states can sort truth from falsity and provide citizens with the kind of honest, transparent information needed to allay their concerns about the integrity of this election. This is also the best and most prudent way for each state to evaluate its election processes and to consider changes to better ensure that election integrity is maintained or restored.”

Let’s be clear once again, and we’ll say it loudly so it resonates to the back row: There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. No examination has turned up any evidence, despite a full two months of desperate digging. No integrity needs to be restored.

The only reason anyone thinks there might have been fraud is because certain cynical and self-serving people keep saying there is, despite an utter lack of proof, such that it becomes a circular argument.

Convince the public fraud is a threat when it’s not, then once you’ve planted the suspicion, point to the public’s demands for more investigation to justify your actions questioning the results. Rinse and repeat.

The actual facts, however, need no continuous laundering.

The election was sound, and the results are true. That they may be inconvenient or even unfathomable to some does not diminish their authenticity.

Finally, to wrap up its disingenuous summary, the SLO County GOP has the audacity to make this accusation:

“Unfortunately, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, reflecting its McClatchy corporate parent’s outrageous left-wing attacks on California Republicans, has blatantly attempted to take partisan advantage of this national tragedy. It has called out local Republicans for their exercise of free speech about the election, and has engaged in “cancel culture” (public shaming) locally to suppress our activity.

“The Tribune’s campaign to shame and suppress in order to sell newspapers sadly reflects the national media’s shameful, decades-long and self-serving effort to inflame the public. This does not contribute to the healing of the nation’s wounds.”

It’s true, in an editorial last week, we did demand accountability from local Republican leaders to once and for all show some independent spine and condemn Donald Trump.

That opinion was a reaction to a Tribune news story in which local GOP leaders one by one shared all the right outrage about those who actually desecrated the seat of our government while sharing no outrage over the man who inspired it all.

The leader of the executive branch, an American president, nurtured and activated insurrection against the legislative branch, after main-lining years of election deligitimization and fear-mongering to an audience primed to accept it.

Anyone who didn’t see this coming is simply denying obvious reality. Leaders in a position to help stop the poisoning of their constituents’ minds but who instead did nothing are no better. In fact, they are silent accomplices.

Calling those leaders out is not “cancel culture.” It’s holding our elected officials accountable. It’s why we have a free and independent press.

As to why we would take this particular position, it’s to protect our community and country from forces too willing to defile the U.S. Constitution in pursuit of their own ambitions. This is a role that goes to the very core of our being.

We are not doing it to sell newspapers or inflame the public, a laughable accusation itself coming from a party that willfully ignores facts while trafficking in unsubstantiated claims of fraud, disproven charges of malfeasance and comical conspiracy theories.

Aside from former SLO County GOP Chairman Al Fonzi, who wrote a forthright viewpoint calling for the president to resign, Republican leadership has been ethically AWOL.

So save us your sanctimonious faux outrage and try putting country before president or party for once.

At the end of the day, at least, we do agree on one thing: Much healing is needed in the immediate future, but we can’t cure this disease by only treating the symptoms.

What we saw on Wednesday were catastrophic symptoms, yet until we address the root cause, all of this will be an exercise in futility.

The truth is, a cancer is running unchecked through our country, and it will take honest, courageous work from all of us to eradicate it — the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party very much included.