Some fun guys to have a beer with..
“We will heal, once the rough beast in the White House slouches off. Something wicked this way goes.”
Maureen Dowd , NY Times Jan 9 2021
Ms Dowd borrowing from the poet John Keats and the novelist Ray Bradbury made for a powerful final thought in her column today. I sincerely hope her optimistic forecast will come to past. The dark vermin-like swarms of figures crawling all over the iconic Capitol Building, hanging from balconies and jamming into any open orifice, was truly an alarming sight. Was this merely an incoherent and disorganized attempt at invading the sacrosanct halls of Congress while it was in session to make a point – or more? It looked like much more. The Trump family and their shrinking cadre of acolytes after having encouraged this act of sedition instead of leading it as promised, the chickenshits then retired to the warm confines of the White House and comfortably watched it on TV letting their shock troops do the dirty work. In the 60's they used to say “the revolution will not be televised”. It now seems attempted counter revolutions are - replacing a democracy with an autocracy. Had Trump had the military or key portions of it on his side, this would have been the first stage of a coup de' etat.
You would think that anyone watching this spectacle of a mob attempting to invade the legislative branch of the government would be truly alarmed. And maybe most were. But 52% of Republicans still believe that the election was actually “stolen” by the Democrats. If that's the case, it logically follows that many Republicans will see this mob as simply brave patriots trying to correct a major injustice.
The durability of festering disinformation is at heart of this. Even such craven political opportunists as Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham have grudgingly admitted that the Biden/Harris victory was honestly won and that the claims of far reaching electoral misdeeds by the Democrats are without merit. But not the guys in the photo above. Even Trump's erstwhile loyal Attorney General, Bill Barr has abandoned this ship of fools. Meanwhile White House staffers are fleeing right and left. Republican leaders across the board are now having to make the difficult decision– should I go or should stay aboard SS Trump. With 74 million Americans having fallen for his ongoing scam and again voted for him, and moreover 52% still clinging to their Dear Leader's panoply of lies regarding the election, Trump is not a spent force.
Sedition is a serious charge and like most words that carry heavy meaning it is often carelessly thrown around. But what else is it when a someone loses a presidential election and refuses to acknowledge the outcome? This despite a multitude of failed appeals to courts in every direction including the Supreme Court, many presided over by of judges that were appointed during his tenure. Yet this Big Lie along with host of smaller ones and an interconnected tangle of of outlandish conspiracy theories has circulating through an alternate-reality media ecosystem. The unsubstantiated allegations of result reversing misdeeds by the Demos has gained enough credibly among the masses of 'the disappointed' appear to have given Trumpism a post-election second life. Enter Senate GOP bottom feeder pols like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and a hoard of wannabe players in the House who have cynically taken up the cause and smelling opportunity instigated the theatrical Congressional proceedings to overturn an election. Even the GOP's devious Senate leadership could not swallow the preposterous proposal to again reexamine the election results by some cobbled together special commission. Yet legally they had to go through the motions.
Is it not undermining of the basic tenets of our democracy to have Donald Trump traitorously encourage a huge demonstration to coincide with this Congressional sham? Then disastrous result - thousands of misguided, mal-informed, passionately angry citizens believing themselves to be “true patriots” many armed traveled to Washington DC from all over the country to express their wrath over a 'stolen election'. Proudly displaying the Stars and Stripes they so adored, they apparently never realized they were taking a giant step toward negating the very democracy their fluttering flags stood for.
Unfortunately despite all of this, a majority of Republican voters still believe Trump was cheated out of his rightful victory. They see it as their side's version of the BLM demonstrations that often got out of hand. Their pundits are comparing the January 6 melee in terms property damage to the BLM demonstrations throughout the summer. BLM demonstrations, albeit an unfortunate subset of looters and arsonists, did not attack Congress. BLM was a response to seemingly never ending series of videos of what amounted to extrajudicial execution of Blacks by police and racist vigilantes. The overwhelming majority of BLM supporter did not support property damage, etc. And they never attacked a Congress while in session. Whereas the pro-Trumpian demonstrators from interviews mostly supported the storming of the Capitol even if they never made it inside themselves. They did not see it as dangerous precedent aimed at the very fundamentals of democratic process. As this sorts itself out how many of ordinary GOP stalwarts will side with the Trumpian insurrectionists and how many will choose a different faction in their now fractured party?
