Will any break rank

Is the late John McCain the last Republican who will break with Trump and the GOP agenda? With some crucial votes coming up in Senate, none more important than the nomination of Bret Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, is it wishful thinking to entertain the hope that one or two Republicans might refuse to follow script? Very unlikely, I know.

And yet I continue to hope that somehow a sense of higher duty to country and democracy might shake their narrow political logic and dissolve their bonds to party.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a senator turned their back on their party leaders. Others have done out of a sense of duty to a higher wisdom and morality that superseded party loyalty and interest. Obviously, it wasn’t an easy decision then. And it wouldn’t be easy in today’s circumstances. Any Republican senator who broke ranks would surely be considered a rogue, even a traitor by Trump and the right wing attack machine. They would immediately lose friends, alienate close colleagues, and become a persona non grata in Republican ranks.

But, on the other hand, the majority of Americans and, at least, a sliver of Republicans would support them. Also, in less than two months, the election results could well vindicate, if not earn them a ticket back into the good graces of their party, when a majority of Americans, worried about an unstable, unfit president and the country’s future, cast their votes and take control of the Congress out of Republican hands.

Finally, history, assuming its arc bends toward justice, would remember them well — as someone who took a stand when it wasn’t an easy, who demonstrated courage at a moment when decency, humaneness, fairness, equality, and democracy were imperiled, who defended the country at a time when tyranny was knocking on the door.

As I said, it’s a hope. But in the meantime, tomorrow I will be doing what gives our country the best chance of escaping a present fraught with danger and creating a pathway to a better future: canvassing for the local congressional Democratic candidate who is running against an incumbent Republican. Hope you’re doing the same.