“And if you would just lead them to freedom, they’d follow you. And so would I.”

– William Wallace

Thank goodness for democracy. I recently wrote a piece called The Conservative Case for Donald Trump and I stand by nearly every word of that rambling opus. Many things have happened since that article was written but three specific developments have changed the central point: Donald Trump cannot continue to be the President of the United States.

The Democratic electorate (God bless them) have resoundingly rejected the pseudo-socialism represented by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden is imperfect, to say the least, but he is not a budding autocrat.

The black community has shown up in force to protest the abhorrent killing of George Floyd. While there has certainly been plenty of violence and foolishness associated with these protests, it is unconscionable that legitimate outrage be conflated with rioting, looting or the radical agendas that always accompany such moments in history. Black Lives Matter’s agenda is absurd, but “black lives matter” is something that every American must embrace – especially the president.

Donald Trump has used the power of the military to attack, frighten and disperse a crowd of these peaceful individuals so he could have a photo-op at a church across the street from the White House. If that weren’t enough, he has threatened to send in the American military to intimidate Americans into submission. My God, read that sentence again. Unlike the endless Russiagate nonsense, this is an impeachable offense.

When George Washington put down the Whiskey rebellion in 1794, he first sent negotiators to solicit a peaceful solution to the rebellion. When Theodore Roosevelt was confronted with a coal strike in 1902, he convened a commission of leaders to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict. Yes, he threatened to use the military, but he also used his powers of negotiation to avoid chaos. Where is this piece of the president’s strategy? It’s great that he chose to condemn George Floyd’s death, but he isn’t just some crazy uncle on Facebook. He’s the president! Actions speak louder than words.

Let this sink in: During his presidency, Donald Trump has made peace overtures to both North Korea and more recently, the Taliban. Yet he has failed to offer anything like consideration to a community of Americans, rightly outraged at the blatant murder of an American black man by the police. Whatever the legal circumstances surrounding Mr. Floyd’s death, there is no doubt that the police used reckless, excessive force and demonstrated willful disregarded for his life. This came virtually on the heels of the ambush and murder of yet another black man by a retired white police officer and his son.

Instead of reaching out, President Trump has acted like a 5 year old who doesn’t want to brush his teeth before bed time. This is obviously unsurprising, but the country clearly requires unity in this moment and Trump is incapable of even attempting to find it.

Presidents are overrated. It’s a relatively weak executive position that the people of this country have put far too much faith in, which is why they are constantly disappointed. With all this talk of abolishing the Senate and the Electoral College, the most effective structural change to the Constitution this country could undertake would be to further weaken the executive branch. We barely need a peace time president.

However, during times of crisis and unrest, presidents can perform vital functions of leadership. Unfortunately, Trump isn’t doing any of that. His professional wrestling gimmick of vilifying the media, glorifying himself and throwing verbal flash bangs of distraction every time he gets himself into a corner is creating the opposite result: division and disunity.

The Bonfire of the Straw Men

This moment is an extraordinary opportunity for America to unite behind addressing the consistent challenges faced by black Americans. That does not mean conservatives have to accept any of these tomfool suggestions wafting through the radical left: defunding the police, apologizing to Colin Kapernick, accepting the United States Constitution is a racist document, washing the feet of city councilmen, whatever.

I have news for Republicans: Democrats just told you that they reject this garbage. Joe Biden completely crushed the far left – with black people leading the way. Almost the entirety of the Democratic black vote (let’s be honest, that’s almost the entirety of the black community in America) just voted for an octogenarian white guy over numerous minority candidates – some of whom accused Biden of racism right on the debate stage! For the love of God, stop giving the New York Times, Ilhan Omar and the Minneapolis City Council so much damned credit. The only reason those people keep wielding so much power is because Republicans have left black voters with no alternative.

Racism is never going away. What happened to George Floyd is going to happen to another black person and when it does, every news outlet from CNN to Fox will be blaring the details to every corner of the country just as they are doing now. When that time comes, what evidence will Republicans be able to present to black voters that they give even half a damn about them?

The fact that the Republican party – with Donald Trump at the top – are not offering anything like serious overtures speaks far louder than all the “yes, but” junk you can muster. What is a president for, if he can’t bring order and unity to a struggling country? You don’t have to throw out the Constitution and disband the police. You don’t need to embrace Al Sharpton. You don’t have to put black boxes on your Facebook page and apologize for your whiteness on Twitter.

All Republicans have to do is demonstrate to black Americans that you hear them and that you are listening to them. Has it occurred to even a single “conservative” Trump supporter that almost every issue black people are upset about – abusive police, terrible education options, stagnant job opportunities – is the result of too much government? This is a layup for conservatives who once built an entire movement around limiting the size and scope of the government.

I do not know where Republicans go from here, but they must begin with the rejection of Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell has done a mostly fine job as majority leader but if he is not working behind the scenes to talk the President into abdicating before the November elections, he is failing his country. He might as well go run and hide under Paul Ryan’s bed.

Whether Trump is talked out of power (unlikely) or whether Republican leadership abandons him en-masse (also probably unlikely, but I can dream), there is no favorable scenario where they continue to be the party of a president who has essentially declared war on the black community. When the Chinese communist party has the moral high ground, you have failed. Get your shit together, Republicans.