In 1938 Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize winning novelist, carried out a coast to coast speaking tour of the United States. He started his talk as follows:

“The expression “to carry owls to Athens” is a familiar humanistic expression in Germany. It denotes an act of superfluous effort, the transfer of an article to a place where such things already exist in abundance…

In undertaking to speak on democracy in America, ladies and gentlemen, I feel as if I, too, were carrying owls to Athens. It looks as I were not aware that I am in the classic land of democracy, where the mode of thought and the type of social structure which are characterised by this name are essentially at home and a universally ingrained conviction; where, in short, democracy is an all-pervading matter of course, upon which the Americans need no instruction – least of all from a European.”

How disappointed would he be with the quality of the current leadership of the City on the Hill? The refusal of President Trump to concede is appalling but worse yet is the moral bankruptcy and craven fear of the GOP.

There are many explanations put forward for the failure of leading Republicans to call out the unconstitutional behaviour of the President. Their use of the slippery language of a razer parsing literalist lawyer to pretend that what is happening is perfectly normal when the world cries out against them.

It is said they are frightened of Trump because he may stand for election again in 2024 and wreak his vengeance on those who fail the loyalty test. The are worried he will set up a PAC and use its funds to attack those he sees as traitors. They believe Trump will turn his 70 million voters against them. If anything these are all reasons for action against an incipient tyrant.

At some point it might just be worth their thinking about what is the right thing to do rather than what is in their short term political interest. Further they may not even be right about that interest. They might reflect on the fact that many Republican voters may retain that, “universally ingrained conviction” for democracy which Thomas Mann spoke so passionately about. Whilst they voted for President Trump their belief in him may evaporate if he clearly appears to be trampling on the democracy which they engaged with in such large numbers.

Thomas Mann’s reticence to offer advice from Europe remains valid. The title of his talk however is germane to the current context. Whilst America might need no lessons in democracy, it seems clear their current president and the leadership of the Republican Party could do with a few owls.