Saturday, January 09, 2021

GOP Must Renounce the BS

In the aftermath of the violent coup attempt at the capitol there have been attempts to
analogize what happened there to violence at Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.  There 
may be some superficial parallels, but on the whole the analogy doesn’t stand up to any serious, good-faith scrutiny.  Others have made that case way better than I ever could.  For this observer, one of the most salient ways that the two situations differ is in law enforcement behavior.  Another - the one I'm concerned with here - is that that the core stated grievance of the capitol rioters – that the election was stolen – is rooted in NOTHING.  The big lie of consequential election fraud, a genie Republicans let out of the bottle long before Trump was ever on the political scene and that as our unhinged President he has invoked without shame to account for his loss, may be something that the rioters sincerely believe.  It may be, as Adam Serwer convincingly argues, that the rioters know there was no fraud but in their hearts believe that Democratic votes are illegitimate by definition.  Whatever the case, the wholly bogus contention that Trump was robbed must not be countenanced in any way or even viewed with indulgent pity.   It must be purged out of our political discourse if we are to move forward. 

 

And as Kevin McCarthy and other Republican leaders who don’t want to see Trump impeached try to pivot to kumbayah “better angels of our nature” “why can’t we all just get along” “it is time for national healing” talk, the reality that “stop the steal” is complete bullshit needs to be reiterated again and again and again.  The events of January 6 were not about a legitimate difference of opinion that we can put behind us now.  The Republican members of congress who voted against certifying electors were playing along with the highly toxic lie that motivated the rioters who took over the capital in a pathetic but bloody and very real coup attempt just a few hours before.  They endorsed the election fraud lie and voted to overturn the results of a free and fair election.  They participated in the coup attempt.  Now that they're reaping what they have sown it is understandable that so many of them want to "just move on."  That cannot be allowed to happen.  

 

It would be a great thing for our country for political leaders of both parties to reach a level of political amity where they can work together to solve the daunting problems that are before us.   But no truce of that kind can ever happen until Republicans loudly, forthrightly, unequivocally renounce the bullshit so many of them have perpetrated.    

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