Collaborators

Posted by Pointman on February 16, 2021 · 9 Comments 

All living languages evolve, which is to say both the meaning and emotional payload attached to words change. Research why so many village lanes are called Country Lane in England or the evolution of the word “nice” from the very precise meaning, irony intended, in Shakespeare’s plays, to its modern day meaning which ranges from mildly pleasant to faintly derogative depending on the context of its usage.

The English verb collaborate, which derives from the same Latin root as its French equivalent, has retained its essential meaning to this day. It means to work together to achieve some goal which might be out of the reach of any one of the parties agreeing to work together. In certain situations, it has that slightly nicey nice, let’s all work together overtone of a group of people pulling a fast one that sets off your alarm bells.

In WWII when mainland Europe was under the Nazi jackboot, there appeared to be only two realistic choices in dealing with living in an occupied country. You did whatever the conquerors said or if you didn’t, summary execution or transportation to a concentration camp would be your fate.

Some enterprising individuals found a third way and started helping the Nazis. In answer to the charge of being traitors, turncoats and on the side of the foreign occupiers, they said they weren’t. They invariably ducked behind that second subtle meaning of the word collaborate. They were just collaborating with the occupying power because there wasn’t any choice. There was of course, but anyway, we’re talking about traitors.

By working with the brutish Germans, they could blunt their excesses and make life as a whole better for the people under their rule. The people didn’t prosper under the proxy rule of these collaborators, but the collaborators certainly did. They got the best of whatever was going, while everybody else had to get by half-starved on a war time ration book.

The ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump have made the same kind of calculation that the wartime collaborators did. There’s a new ruling regime and it looks unlikely to ever be overturned, so there’s no downside to them betraying their own people while prospering themselves. Leave aside all those phony never Trump or TDS excuses, what they did was to betray the will of the people they were supposed to be representing. The Dems already had a House majority, so their additional votes were never needed, but sending a signal that they were willing to work with the new regime was needed by them.

Seven Republicans in the Senate made that same calculation as well, knowing that Trump would never be impeached because of the two-thirds rule, so they couldn’t be accused of putting the 45th president in a prison cell.

What’s interesting about both cases is the only downside for collaboration with the regime would be them getting kicked out of office at the next mid-term or presidential election by the people who’d voted for them originally. That would certainly have been the case in the old America prior to the 2020 election, but not in the new Amerika that exists now.

Under the new regime, they’ve calculated there’ll never be another fair or free election, and as they’ve signalled their willingness to be collaborators, their seats in Congress will be safe.

©Pointman

Related articles by Pointman:

Trump’s second impeachment trial.

The rule of law.

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Filed under Article · Tagged with Collaborators, Impeachment, Resist the Regime