The cowardice of Republican partisanship

• Republicans are using Trump's election to aggrandize themselves than to serve Americans.
• Alex Little is an attorney in Nashville.

Thomas Paine wrote in the dark winter of 1776 that "these are the times that try men's souls."

In those early days of our country, when its birth was not assured, Paine observed that "the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country."

These words describe well our Republican politicians in Washington, including Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.

Make no mistake: We are facing a crisis in the United States. We have placed a disturbed, authoritarian charlatan in the White House, and the Republican Party's leaders are more interested in using his election to aggrandize themselves than to serve the people of the United States.

On Friday, on a day marked to remember the horrors of the Holocaust, President Trump closed the country's borders to women and children fleeing a regime in Syria who slaughters them indiscriminately. Anne Frank and her family were denied entry as refugees into the United States during World War II; 75 years later, a young Syrian girl is likely to suffer the same fate for the same reasons.

It gets worse. In the same executive order, President Trump established a litmus test for refugees that explicitly placed members of one religion at the front of the line for entry into our country, while barring access to those of a different faith.

Not even the spouses of American citizens are spared. Under the Republican Party's policy, our government will now block husbands and wives of some American citizens from reentering the United States, even if they hold a green card and have lived here legally for decades, once they travel outside of the country for any reason.

And that was just Friday. Earlier in the week, President Trump repeated the lie that there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. He personally called the director of the U.S. National Park Service to request aerial photographs to support the observably false claim that a million people attended his inauguration. And he proposed paying for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico by imposing a staggering 20 percent tariff on Mexican imports, signalling a trade war with our third largest trading partner on his sixth day in office.

What did Tennessee's senators say about these matters?

Not a word.

At a time when our country needs what Paine might describe as "winter soldiers," who stand up when weaker men and women stand down, Senator Alexander and Senator Corker sit by the fire and smoke cigars.

They have chosen to acquiesce to partisan motives, unwilling to muster even a gesture of support for religious equality, the moral righteousness of protecting refugees, or the baseline expectation that a President should behave more like a statesman than a Kardashian.

The unwillingness of our Senators to stand up to President Trump is a personal moral failure. (The history books their grandchildren read will judge them harshly, and rightfully so.) But more troubling is the impact of their cowardice on others in Congress.

Only a year before Thomas Paine decried the "sunshine patriot," then-General George Washington confirmed a court-martial for cowardice by a soldier in the Continental Army, declaring it "the most injurious (crime) to an Army, and the last to be forgiven; inasmuch as it may, and often does happen, that the Cowardice of a single Officer may prove the Distruction of the whole Army."

By failing to act courageously, Alexander and Corker give aid and comfort to other weak-willed Republicans in Congress. We cannot afford their silence much longer.

Alex Little is a lawyer in Nashville.

Responses from Senators Lamar Alexander Bob Corker

Editor's note: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Maryville, and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Chattanooga, issued statements Sunday on President Trump's executive order on a refugee ban.

Sen. Lamar Alexander:

"This vetting proposal itself needed more vetting,” his statement reads. ”More scrutiny of those traveling from war-torn countries to the United States is wise. But this broad and confusing order seems to ban legal, permanent residents with green cards, and might turn away Iraqis, for example, who were translators and helped save lives of Americans troops and who could be killed if they stay in Iraq. And while not explicitly a religious test, it comes close to one which is inconsistent with our American character."

Sen. Bob Corker:

“We all share a desire to protect the American people, but this executive order has been poorly implemented, especially with respect to green card holders. The administration should immediately make appropriate revisions, and it is my hope that following a thorough review and implementation of security enhancements that many of these programs will be improved and reinstated.”