By Edward Miller

In days long gone, Republicans revered as a patron saint British statesman Edmund Burke. It was Burke, as a member of Parliament, who supported the American Revolution and who first said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Now that the American president has unequivocally demonstrated his support for neo-Nazism and white supremacy, where are all those “good men” in the Republican ranks?

Actually, some are starting to come out from behind the curtain and stand in opposition to the president. Like most dissents, this one has begun slowly. This week Sen. Corker of Tennessee spoke for the brave pioneers: “The President has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.”

The president had already faced a rebellion of sorts from Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and struck back by calling him “WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate,” and urging his defeat in next year’s primary. This is a reliably conservative member of his own party the president is attacking.

Also stepping out from the voiceless ranks is Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate: “What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised when Tuesday happened. There’s no question about that.” His South Carolina colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham, was equally unambiguous about the president’s false equivalence of the white nationalists and their opposition.

Still hiding behind the curtain are Senate Majority Leaders Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, both of whom have expressed outrage without naming the president. For that they deserve only half credit.

So who’s next, especially within the administration? Will it be Rex Tillerson, secretary of state? I thought he would jump ship when the president abandoned the Paris climate accord, but apparently existential threats to the planet weren’t enough. Nor was the depopulating of the State Department. But perhaps now, when fascist attacks on America’s commitment to racial and religious justice are condoned by the White House, he will make his move.

Surely someone of stature in the administration will stand apart from the unfolding tragedy. It might be Gen. John Kelly, the new chief of staff, who was visibly distressed listening to the president’s defense of the indefensible. Or perhaps Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, who is Jewish and, according to friends, dismayed by the anti-Semitism of the week’s events.

As for the rest of us, we can all take action to encourage a direct and vigorously forthright response from our morally somnolent Republican congressmen and senators. Don’t just lament. Get busy sending emails and making phone calls to the timid legislators who need to find the courage to stand up to the president.

I’m optimistic the resistance will grow within Republican ranks. But I’m guarded in that optimism. Remember, Edmund Burke stood alone as he tried to forestall a revolution in the American colonies. His parliamentary colleagues did nothing. History is not kind to “good men” who fail to respond the evil around them

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