If only public figures feared that the verdict of history would outweigh their hunger for power in the present.

Throughout Donald Trump’s rise, reign and continued domination of the nation’s political scene, I have often marveled at the many high-profile Republican actors who have become his Greek chorus. They know what a con artist he is, what a

looser

hi is And they should know they are on the wrong side of history, kowtowing for an anti-democratic man who will go down as the worst US president ever.

These Republicans are not stupid, some even have Ivy League degrees.

Take Senator Ted Cruz. The slutty Texan (Princeton, Harvard Law) once aptly denounced Trump as a pathological liar, utterly amoral, and a narcissist. This week, Trump placed a comment from Cruz at the top of a list of quotes in a

2024

campaign email titled Republicans show united support for President Trump after his fourth criminal indictment.

Any time bad news comes out about Hunter or Joe Biden, Cruz said, you can set a stopwatch and within hours some clown is going to sue Donald Trump again.

Right, and the dozens of grand jurors who returned the indictments are aware of the Democratic ruse? And also the brave Republicans who gave evidence under oath against Trump?

Cruz knows better. But it’s all part of the Trumpian scam. Cruz and other bogus populists

,

pretend to stand up for average Americans against the elites

,

when actually they fool conservative voters.

History will not be kind. The problem is that too many Republicans’ fear of the judgment of history is being outweighed by their fear of Trump’s wrath now. The staunch MAGA loyalty of about a third of Republican voters means that Trump’s indictment can, and has, doomed his critics in the Republican primary.

Still, I’m stunned that more elected and party officials still won’t turn against the abominable Trump.

People drawn to play a role in politics tend to be students of the subject, I’ve found over years of reporting on them. Most Republicans know that the heroes of history are those who stand firm on principle, even at the risk of losing or forfeiting electoral office. So why choose to be unheroic, even mean, juries might find?

A modern John F. Kennedy might find enough Republicans to write another edition of Profiles in Courage. But the nationals would not be the national leaders of once Grand Old Parties or most of the Republicans now battling Trump.

Instead are the heroes

once before

obscure lower-level Republicans across the country. Many have endured personal abuse, even death threats and career setbacks because of their anti-Trump, pro-democracy stances, sometimes despite direct pressure from the man himself. Their heroism is evident in the criminal record against Trump in the indictments in Manhattan, Washington, Atlanta and South Florida, and in the final report of the House committee dated Jan. 6.

–

declared co-conspirators.

Among them: former Republican representatives. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois are out of Congress because they put country before party. Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also defeated after opposing Trump’s attempted coup in his state. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Elections Officer Gabriel Sterling. Firm local officials in other swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy were shocked enough after Jan. 6 to denounce Trump for a minute. But they came to define cowardice

,

not courage McCarthy by his open cringing, McConnell by his silence. ace

Georgia

sterling

from Georgia

once said, if you’re going to take a leadership position, show some of it!

Just like the governor of Georgia. Brian Kemp. He defied Trump after the 2020 election and attacked Tuesday when Trump claimed

that he would reveal on Monday

irrefutable evidence of voting fraud

the state of Georgia

.

Georgia’s 2020 Elections Not Stolen, Kemp posted on the site formerly known as Twitter. For nearly three years, no one with evidence of fraud has not reported under oath and proved nothing in a court of law. Our elections in Georgia are safe, accessible and fair and will remain so for as long as I am governor. The future of our country is at stake in 2024 and that should be our focus.

I prefer a more frontal attack, but is Kemp’s example so hard to follow? Apparently so to all the quislings trying to protect their own political skins by kissing Trumps. Yet histories of early verdicts against them are already being written.

Stuart Stevens, a strategist for the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney, wrote This week I helped elect Republican governors or senators in half the country. By remaining silent or supporting Trump, they became part of a conspiracy to end democracy. They failed America and that will be their legacy.

The Bulwark, a site created by

“

Never

–

Trump

“

Republicans, has published a masterful booklet and podcast series trace

what it calls the “corruption” of

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

s corruption

in morphing from Trump tease (2015: He’s a race-provoking, xenophobic, religious bigot) to sycophant chief. And on PBS NewsHour this week, former federal

J

edge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative legal icon who shamefully counts Cruz among his former law clerks, told Judy Woodruff: It is the Republicans who have reprehensiblely failed us as Americans.

History is written by the victors, they say. As worrisome as our present moment may seem, we can hope that democracy and the rule of law will triumph over the threat posed by Trump and his cohorts.

And then future generations will read all about it.

@jackiekcalmes