Oath? What oath?

When a someone is elected to Congress, they swear an oath of office to protect and defend the country. So how do Republicans reconcile that with a pledge to essentially damage the country by avoiding taxation?

When a someone is elected to Congress, an oath of office is taken when he or she is sworn in. This is that oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

In direct contradiction to this oath, almost all Republican senators and representatives have also sworn to a pledge created by one Grover Norquist, a Republican operative, leader of a “conservative” organization, who has described his goal this way, in his own words: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

What he proposes to “starve” the government of is the money it needs to operate, by proscribing raising any individual or corporate taxes and also by reducing taxes if any credits or deductions are removed. As expenses for such things as national defense, nuclear waste management, health care for a growing and aging population, border security, airline safety, and infrastructure (for example maintenance of every bridge on every interstate highway) continue to grow, but government has less and less income, eventually government defaults, and Norquist has what he wants—something dead in his bathtub.

A Republican ex-senator known for his honesty and directness, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, has described it this way: “No taxes, under any situation, even if your country goes to hell.”

How can the Republicans in office and seeking office reconcile an oath to protect and defend the country, to do their duty to the country, with a pledge to essentially damage the country? They can’t. “Traitor” is a strong word, but I can think of no other.

Norquist is funded by people and groups who live for their own wealth; they will, as Simpson says, see the country go under rather than pay their fair share; he and they are, in my opinion, traitors.