What kind of people define today's Republican Party? | ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN

We are living during some scary and tumultuous times. There is, essentially, a World War going on. The Middle East is continuing a war that seems to have been going on since biblical times. Russia is bent upon destroying Ukraine. North Korea is dead set upon becoming a nuclear threat. Caribbean countries are engaged in wars upon their own citizens. These examples of upheaval do not cover all of the turmoil.

All of these wars and talk of war affects what happens in America. Our system of government and alliances make the United States a party to just about everything that happens in the world, like it or not.

With so many countries flexing their muscles and bent upon power and world domination, people of a reasonable state of mind have to ask: What has happened to the GOP in this country?

As much as one could look at the Democratic Party and see a lack of cohesiveness, a look at the Republicans shows sheer chaos and near madness. Who are the people that the party has allowed to define who it is, and what the party stands for?

Dear God, they have allowed Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to hold a place that is front and center. Greene is a blank tablet that can only be filled in with ugly hateful, disrespectful behavior and really stupid notions.

As she amassed her two supporters from Kentucky and Arizona to oust their House Speaker Mike Johnson, they presented their demands. Those demands include “no further U.S. aid to Ukraine, a commitment to defund special counsel investigations that brought federal criminal charges against (Donald) Trump.”

As we watch the charges and pending trials unfold involving Trump, they are long overdue.

The trial that the world is watching, which is underway in New York state courts, is simple: He falsified business records to hide hush money payment to a porn actress before the 2016 election.

Republicans can cut the moral high ground act. The “Christian conservatives” as they call themselves, have to face it: Their pied piper has no moral high ground in business or in private life when it comes to self-preservation and his wants or desires.

Trump is not a victim of politics. He is a victim of his own self-indulgence and excesses. It is tiresome to have to read or hear about the unfairness of the Stormy Daniels payoff trial. What is unfair is that he has gotten away with so many infractions against so many people, businesses and yes, the government for so very long.

What is unfair is to see a defendant in court and outside of court engage in conduct that the average, everyday citizen would be jailed for. And shouldn't his lawyers be held in contempt for at least failure to control their client? Most people absolutely do not get to disrespect a judge and court proceedings.

A USA Today article reported the Florida GOP releasing its list of delegates to the national convention. All are Trump family members, now including Barron Trump. And please, Eric Trump is the chair of Florida’s delegation. (A release from Mrs. Trump stated that Barron's name had been removed as Mr. Trump misstated Barron's age). There are other delegates that include Kimberly Guilfoyle, “who is in a relationship with Donald Trump Jr.”

“The Trump family has come to dominate the Republican party in recent years and continues to remake the GOP in the image of the former president and his MAGA movement,” according to the USA Today article.

The GOP can continue to hide its head in the sand. This is no political dynasty family of well-meaning people who have done great good for America and its citizens.

This is a Trump family who have only worked on this planet for self-enrichment and self-indulgence. There is no record of meaningful public service to be found. In fact, there is a litany of sharp practices that prey on other human beings from real estate schemes to peddling Bibles, and, lest we forget, a real estate how-to-get-rich school that scammed the public.

Many men have affairs and seedy liaisons just like Trump. They are not trying to run the country and hold others accountable for behavior freely exhibited by him and his family members.

There is just no way that you can make a racehorse out of a mule. The best that you will have is a fast mule.

Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The views expressed are her own. 

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene define the GOP | ELAINE HARRIS SPEARMAN