I remember the day vividly! I was 68 and had never seen anything like it. My fear that Trump losing wasn’t the end of our problems was reinforced. A year on my fears for our democracy are even greater. I have 7 grandchildren, 2 held duel citizenship in NZ, I gave my daughter and so -in- law the $ to get their other 2 kids their duel citizenship. Just in case.
So, if the Jan 6 event was based on voter anger over BLM activist Micah Xavier gunning down five Dallas police officers... based on the acceptance of months of violent rioting and looting by left protestors over George Floyd... that would be have been considered a fine and acceptable protest.
But the fact that the protests were based on anger over the election process and directed at elite politicians... that is a constitutional crises and demands the all the power of the justice department to prosecute?
JVL doesn’t allow comments on Triad, but just read his newsletter and it is POWERFUL STUFF. Everyone should read his 9/11 - 1/06 corollary. Definitely should be shouted out to everyone in this country as a warning sign to wake us the F up!
Thanks, Charlie, for compiling this. You are spot on - the way that Republicans (and their media allies) have tried to ignore the catastrophe of last January 6, and to persuade others that it was no big deal, has been profoundly amoral and disturbing. Their capacity for dishonesty is stunning, and their willingness to abjectly humiliate themselves and to sacrifice what little dignity and integrity that they have left is both sad and deeply disappointing.
However, even more concerning is their willingness to take things to the brink with former President Trump, and then almost immediately revert back to the patterns of behavior that brought us very near to the most serious Constitutional crises we have faced in our national history.
The next calamity will be worse.
And the time for political leaders to pretend to do something without following through with courage and resolve is past. If they will not do anything to stop the authoritarians, crackpots, and grifters in our midst, our Republic is surely doomed. Because the authoritarians, crackpots, and grifters are willing to take action, even if those actions destroy the Constitutional order.
If we expect that order to survive, it must have defenders willing to take action and to take risks. Right now, I don't see that sort of firm resolve on the national stage in either party, other than from the incorrigible Mr. Trump and his worst allies.
This morning, Charlie focuses on what's wrong with the Republican Party, including members' lack of courage and conviction regarding 1/6. Much needed. But let me ask another question - what the hell is wrong with the Democrats? Why is Congress not in session on 1/6? Why is the House and Senate not considering resolutions honoring police officers, condemning violence of the protesters, condemning the attempt to stop the counting of the electoral votes. It wouldn't be hard to write the resolutions in such a way that they express highly popular views about what happened on 1/6 yet many Republicans members of Congress will be pushed to vote against those resolutions by lunatic members of their base. Democrats continue to commit political malpractice.
Listening to the pod the other day, and I agree with Bill Kristol when he says Dems need to make GOP take hard votes post Jan. 6, but doesn’t their shamelessness make you think that almost anything the Democrats do is futile? I too think they’re were issues with BBB, but you can kind of see the logic that given the complete bad faith of GOP actors that giving voters seemingly popular (according to polling) programs would help them with their base to ensure they have money and boots on the ground in the mid-terms. But then the progs and the moderates ate each other alive.
I really do think the only way forward is a disruptor candidate that can break through the GOP/Dem divide. We keep giving Dems a hard time like, “Oh, they should have done this or this,” but if it comes from a Democrat, the GOP can just swat it away with any justification, no matter how unreasonable or illiberal. That sets up this terrible dynamic of pitting moderates vs. progressives against each other in terms of legislating where one group continues to piss off another. Andrew Yang is forming his own political party, and I’m not sure if it’ll go anywhere, but he pointed out that over 60% of voters want a different choice than the GOP/Dem one we got. I am in that 60%, and a majority of my friends in my age group are as well.
But also I totally agree with Bill about Covid testing failure… that’s all on Biden. I know someone who is sending weed edibles to a family member in the UK in exchange for Covid tests because they get so many for free over there. These are the f#@king times we live in people! Happy New Year!
It's really hard to understand why so many people don't see the irony of the party of Benghazi attacking the bipartisan 1/6 Committee as a political witch hunt. I guess part of the explanation for that is that so many people believe Benghazi, all dozen dud investigations worth, was a legitimate investigation concerned with truth rather than with smearing a political opponent loathed by so many Americans.
So many lies, lies, lies. People actually believe Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster and Seth Rich killed, ran a child pedophile ring out of a fictitious basement in a DC pizza parlor, and that she did "Frazzledrip." Millions of our fellow Americans hate Hillary Clinton based on lies, and not just any lies, but obviously ridiculous, stupid lies that anyone with half a brain cell could tell are just absurd. The internet spreads misinformation, yes, but what can be done about someone stupid enough to actually drive from North Carolina to DC to do an "investigation" of Comet Ping Pong with his assault rifle?
And these folks get over-represented, from gerrymandering to the Electoral College, when it comes to electing our representatives. And still, they want to eliminate anything of democracy in our elections, because they've been lied to that Democrats are stealing elections, and that if Democrats take over, life as they know it will end. With so many voters, it's garbage in and garbage out, and apparently they're raccoons who just can't get enough garbage. They subsist on a diet of lies, they dumpster dive for more lies, then they poison the real world when their perverse fantasies impact us all. And then ten years from now too many of us will be wondering where democracy has gone, and why fascists have taken over. We'll look back sadly at the time when we could say, "Well, our side may have lost this time. But, soon enough, election time will come again."
These pieces do nothing other than to remind yourself that these guys are cowards that only care about one thing: power. This will not change minds as almost everyone can see the way this works. At first they said it is bad because they thought that would be the best maneuver to keep power. Then, they realized the people actually liked this and Trump was still on solid ground so they maneuver to say it was not that bad and actually we do support Trump in '24 - I was the one who overreacted. I am sorry for my mistake.
"The GOP and its media allies continue to dodge, deflect, and minimize the enormity of the event; and they have convinced much of their base to either look the other way, or actually applaud the assault on our seat of government."
I would note that the base didn't need much convincing. Since the arrival of Trump, it has been abundantly clear that there was a huge market for lies. Give up your honor and you can be a rightwing star.
Thanks SO much for doing this. We desperately need the reminder. We also need to ask ourselves what can cause a moment of honesty and risk to evaporate into thin air? Why did these people so thoroughly and immediately recant? I for one would be interested in your take on that question.
I remember the day vividly! I was 68 and had never seen anything like it. My fear that Trump losing wasn’t the end of our problems was reinforced. A year on my fears for our democracy are even greater. I have 7 grandchildren, 2 held duel citizenship in NZ, I gave my daughter and so -in- law the $ to get their other 2 kids their duel citizenship. Just in case.
So, if the Jan 6 event was based on voter anger over BLM activist Micah Xavier gunning down five Dallas police officers... based on the acceptance of months of violent rioting and looting by left protestors over George Floyd... that would be have been considered a fine and acceptable protest.
But the fact that the protests were based on anger over the election process and directed at elite politicians... that is a constitutional crises and demands the all the power of the justice department to prosecute?
Do I have that right?
JVL doesn’t allow comments on Triad, but just read his newsletter and it is POWERFUL STUFF. Everyone should read his 9/11 - 1/06 corollary. Definitely should be shouted out to everyone in this country as a warning sign to wake us the F up!
Thanks, Charlie, for compiling this. You are spot on - the way that Republicans (and their media allies) have tried to ignore the catastrophe of last January 6, and to persuade others that it was no big deal, has been profoundly amoral and disturbing. Their capacity for dishonesty is stunning, and their willingness to abjectly humiliate themselves and to sacrifice what little dignity and integrity that they have left is both sad and deeply disappointing.
However, even more concerning is their willingness to take things to the brink with former President Trump, and then almost immediately revert back to the patterns of behavior that brought us very near to the most serious Constitutional crises we have faced in our national history.
The next calamity will be worse.
And the time for political leaders to pretend to do something without following through with courage and resolve is past. If they will not do anything to stop the authoritarians, crackpots, and grifters in our midst, our Republic is surely doomed. Because the authoritarians, crackpots, and grifters are willing to take action, even if those actions destroy the Constitutional order.
If we expect that order to survive, it must have defenders willing to take action and to take risks. Right now, I don't see that sort of firm resolve on the national stage in either party, other than from the incorrigible Mr. Trump and his worst allies.
This morning, Charlie focuses on what's wrong with the Republican Party, including members' lack of courage and conviction regarding 1/6. Much needed. But let me ask another question - what the hell is wrong with the Democrats? Why is Congress not in session on 1/6? Why is the House and Senate not considering resolutions honoring police officers, condemning violence of the protesters, condemning the attempt to stop the counting of the electoral votes. It wouldn't be hard to write the resolutions in such a way that they express highly popular views about what happened on 1/6 yet many Republicans members of Congress will be pushed to vote against those resolutions by lunatic members of their base. Democrats continue to commit political malpractice.
Listening to the pod the other day, and I agree with Bill Kristol when he says Dems need to make GOP take hard votes post Jan. 6, but doesn’t their shamelessness make you think that almost anything the Democrats do is futile? I too think they’re were issues with BBB, but you can kind of see the logic that given the complete bad faith of GOP actors that giving voters seemingly popular (according to polling) programs would help them with their base to ensure they have money and boots on the ground in the mid-terms. But then the progs and the moderates ate each other alive.
I really do think the only way forward is a disruptor candidate that can break through the GOP/Dem divide. We keep giving Dems a hard time like, “Oh, they should have done this or this,” but if it comes from a Democrat, the GOP can just swat it away with any justification, no matter how unreasonable or illiberal. That sets up this terrible dynamic of pitting moderates vs. progressives against each other in terms of legislating where one group continues to piss off another. Andrew Yang is forming his own political party, and I’m not sure if it’ll go anywhere, but he pointed out that over 60% of voters want a different choice than the GOP/Dem one we got. I am in that 60%, and a majority of my friends in my age group are as well.
But also I totally agree with Bill about Covid testing failure… that’s all on Biden. I know someone who is sending weed edibles to a family member in the UK in exchange for Covid tests because they get so many for free over there. These are the f#@king times we live in people! Happy New Year!
It's really hard to understand why so many people don't see the irony of the party of Benghazi attacking the bipartisan 1/6 Committee as a political witch hunt. I guess part of the explanation for that is that so many people believe Benghazi, all dozen dud investigations worth, was a legitimate investigation concerned with truth rather than with smearing a political opponent loathed by so many Americans.
So many lies, lies, lies. People actually believe Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster and Seth Rich killed, ran a child pedophile ring out of a fictitious basement in a DC pizza parlor, and that she did "Frazzledrip." Millions of our fellow Americans hate Hillary Clinton based on lies, and not just any lies, but obviously ridiculous, stupid lies that anyone with half a brain cell could tell are just absurd. The internet spreads misinformation, yes, but what can be done about someone stupid enough to actually drive from North Carolina to DC to do an "investigation" of Comet Ping Pong with his assault rifle?
And these folks get over-represented, from gerrymandering to the Electoral College, when it comes to electing our representatives. And still, they want to eliminate anything of democracy in our elections, because they've been lied to that Democrats are stealing elections, and that if Democrats take over, life as they know it will end. With so many voters, it's garbage in and garbage out, and apparently they're raccoons who just can't get enough garbage. They subsist on a diet of lies, they dumpster dive for more lies, then they poison the real world when their perverse fantasies impact us all. And then ten years from now too many of us will be wondering where democracy has gone, and why fascists have taken over. We'll look back sadly at the time when we could say, "Well, our side may have lost this time. But, soon enough, election time will come again."
These pieces do nothing other than to remind yourself that these guys are cowards that only care about one thing: power. This will not change minds as almost everyone can see the way this works. At first they said it is bad because they thought that would be the best maneuver to keep power. Then, they realized the people actually liked this and Trump was still on solid ground so they maneuver to say it was not that bad and actually we do support Trump in '24 - I was the one who overreacted. I am sorry for my mistake.
"The GOP and its media allies continue to dodge, deflect, and minimize the enormity of the event; and they have convinced much of their base to either look the other way, or actually applaud the assault on our seat of government."
I would note that the base didn't need much convincing. Since the arrival of Trump, it has been abundantly clear that there was a huge market for lies. Give up your honor and you can be a rightwing star.
Thanks SO much for doing this. We desperately need the reminder. We also need to ask ourselves what can cause a moment of honesty and risk to evaporate into thin air? Why did these people so thoroughly and immediately recant? I for one would be interested in your take on that question.
So, one has to wonder if the rioters had actually found Pence and Pelosi?
That is my favorite Faulkner quote