Steps of the Capitol
This Saturday, a now-prepared Capitol Police and over-protected Congressional buildings are ready. They are ready for the “J-6” rally, organized by former Trump staffers at the foot of Capitol Hill. For those not fully aware of DC geography, that’s “the Capitol end” of the National Mall, around a reflecting pool that looks up at the majestic front of the Capitol building.
(If you went on a “senior trip” to Washington, at least in my day, it’s where your class lined up for a panoramic camera picture with the Capitol in the background. If you got at the very end of one side of the class, you could outrun the panoramic to the other side – and appear twice in your school picture!! Joel and Doug did it, Craig is a little blurry on one side.)
Those were simpler times at the end of the Vietnam War. While protests were still around, Nixon had withdrawn most of the US personnel. It would be another year before the fall of Saigon.
There were extremists in the Vietnam War era. But there also was a clear distinction between those “mainstream” politicians who were against the War, and those groups who were burning down ROTC buildings on campuses and threatening other Federal buildings. The anti-war “mainstream” and the far-left “Weather Underground”, considered a domestic terrorist group, were far apart.
Footsie
I was listening to Nicolle Wallace, a former Republican staffer for George W Bush, discuss how Republican Party politicians are “playing footsie” with today’s version of domestic terrorism. Those terrorists are the same folks who stormed in the Capitol Building on January 6th. They threatened to hang Vice President Pence and Congressional leaders. And they attempted to stop the Constitutionally mandated process of certifying the Presidential election.
There is a bright line connecting the terrorists of January 6th and the Republican Party today. And that line, like all current Republican political trends, runs right through the Presidency of Donald Trump. Trump’s refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the 2020 outcome with his loss, and his constant encouragement of the “stop the steal” fantasy, damn near brought our Republic down.
And it hasn’t ended. Trump is still on the “trail”, and still claiming that the election was a “fraud”. And his supporters, millions of them, still believe. He continues to give a “wink and a nod” to those organizations that are using his rhetoric to mobilize for their own reasons, the Proud Boys and the other far-right crazies.
Most Republican politicians have reached a conclusion: they cannot win a Republican primary without the support of the “Trump” voter. From Harvard educated Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Ron DeSantis to formerly more “moderate” Republicans like Marco Rubio and even an Ohio Senatorial candidate, former Trump critic and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance (Yale): all are “onboard the Trump train”. So they cannot stand for the truth of the insurrection of January 6th, they have to accept the “new version”: it was a “First Amendment protest” with a few “bad actors”.
Lying Eyes
We watched on our televisions on January 6th and saw the battles on the steps and in the hallways. We watched as the House and Senate floors were desecrated, and the flag of Rebellion was marched into the building. It was much, much more than a few “bad actors”.
But the modern Republican Party needs us to stop believing our “lying eyes”. Now, we are told that the video where a mob attempts to break through to the House chamber as members are evacuating the other end, was just an exercise in “free speech”. They demand that a woman was simply exercising her “privilege” as a citizen, jumping though a broken window into the face of an officer with a gun. “She did not deserve to be shot”. And finally, those hundreds held by the government on charges are the“victims”, not the “perpetrators” of an insurrection.
Ask Governor Mike DeWine from Ohio. There seems to be little room in the Republican Party for more moderate views. Drink the “Kool Aid” and accept the revisionist view of the Insurrection, or risk losing a Trump leaning primary vote. DeWine can’t even get the endorsement of his own Party in the primary. This Saturday’s rally is just one more step in the “redemption” of the insurrectionists, and one more brick on the road to the perdition of Trumpism. They are changing history, in a way more blatant than that of the removal of the old Daughters of the Confederacy statuary.
Good News
They are ready: Capitol Police, National Guard, FBI, Homeland Security, National Park Police; everyone. The risk to the United States Capitol is low. Experts worry more about the corollary rallies at State Houses throughout the nation, “softer” targets less prepared for “bad actors”. Let’s hope the scenes of long-guns in the Michigan State Capitol balcony, or Idaho, or Oregon, won’t be repeated.
There is one bit of good news. The vote turnout in the California Gubernatorial Recall was high, keeping Gavin Newsom, the current Democratic Governor, in office. It demonstrates what we knew in 2020: if everyone shows up, Democrats win. As the Republican Party continues to whittle itself to a small Trumpophile base, it gives up the moderate former Republicans who can’t stomach the lies. In an America where elections are won in the middle, it’s incredibly complicated for a Republican to win anywhere but the “Reddest” areas. It even puts Ohio, with the Governor position and a Senate seat up, in play for 2022.
Who would have “thunk” that?
