Republican senators have picked their fate, let it be.

Cowering before Donald Trump and his 40 percent voter support, ever fearful of a Tweet that will cost them their next primary, these men and women have surrendered their honor, discarded their political beliefs, and now stand silently as the president has confronted our constitution and refused to defend it.

Left to do the obvious in Lafayette Square, where this American president fired rubber bullets and tear gas on peaceful protestors, all for the benefit of a ridiculous photo op for himself, these senators once again remained largely silent. Silent in the face of our president attacking our citizens boldly and proudly.

Yes, Republican senators ignored it when Trump tried to use a foreign government to lie and discredit Democratic presumed nominee Joe Biden, and, yes, these senators looked away when the president ignored congressional oversight repeatedly, and, yes, they were silent when Trump separated migrant children from their parents on our Southern border.

And these same Senators were silent when this President abandoned their long-held positions of fiscal conservatism, free trade and federalism. They were silent when this president destroyed our relationships with allies across the planet, silent when we abandoned the WHO during a global pandemic and silent when Trump fired inspectors general across the government.

Republican senators have picked their fate, let it be.

Now the Trump administration finds itself responsible for the most incompetent response to the coronavirus than any nation on the planet, with more cases, and more deaths than any other nation. A failure that has cost needless and ongoing deaths of vulnerable Americans, all because Trump wanted to wish the virus away before it disrupted his re-election, a far more important event to him.

Now the economy is in crisis, with major businesses closing, food banks flooded with people desperately needing food, and the president is planning his next photo op, re-typing his next childishly offensive tweet, and awaiting his next chance to hit the links.

Over the last 10 days, since the police murder of George Floyd, Americans of all colors and experiences have taken to the streets demanding an end to police brutality, an end to injustice at the hands of those who promised to serve and protect — all while Trump has demanded that the response should be, guess what, more police brutality, and military intervention, dominating the streets —the streets that belong to the public, not the small man in the White House.

The president wants our citizens beaten, gassed, shot, dominated, because he wants to be re-elected and somehow believes beating citizens is his best path to victory.

But the polls show another story. Polling across the spectrum shows a potential landslide victory for Democratic candidate Biden and a huge defeat for president photo op, the cowardly president who hid in the basement when marchers came to Washington.

Those same polls show many of the Republican senators suddenly at risk of losing their seats. What better justice for enabling the Trump failed presidency? These poor souls find themselves linked forever to Trump’s excesses and their acceptance of the degradation of the nation.

Like prisoners loaded on the bus, self-chained to their seats, and now that bus is careening towards a cliff, they could still stand and shout to put on the brakes, stop the bus, save their lives. But they won’t…

…Republicans senators have picked their fate, let it be.

Jim Crawford is a retired educator, political enthusiast and award-winning columnist living here in the Tri-State.