The far-right yahoo insurrection at the Capital has been building for years, unquestionably egged on by Trump. January 6 was just more blatant. All those morally bankrupt politicians who for years kowtowed through this nightmare cannot now claim to be surprised and outraged. Despite their race to revisionism, know what they are – rats jumping off a sinking ship.
But the yahoos may not be as much to blame as Trump himself, who shamelessly uses them as clay in his hands. As noted recently in The Economist, William F. Buckley once said that the conservative movement (aka, Republicans) was the “politics of reality.” Trump is the antithesis of reality. His election denial may be the penultimate example. The reality of the election was clear by the end of that week. Yet Trump megaphoned denial so intensely that many Republicans, and especially the yahoos, actually came to believe the election was stolen. So, the yahoos may have thought they were doing the right thing to try to turn it around and “take back America”. That might be giving them too much credit, but if the election had been truly manipulated wouldn’t many reasonable people have wanted to do the same?
There are many horrors to the insurrection – death, confederate flags (a symbol of treason) in the Rotunda, mob frenzy, deeper threats (e.g., the zip tie guys, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails), and the fact that it could happen at all, among others. Could it really have happened without Capitol Police complicity? Or worse, Republican complicity? And the fact that Republican senators and reps continued to promote the lie by voicing opposition to the Electoral College confirmation even after the dust settled also rises to a horror – the horror of American politics gone absolutely and unpatriotically astray.
The real question about the insurrection is the aftermath – retribution and repair. The mob should be arrested for treason and so should Trump. That much is clear. And the Congressmen who continued to protest the election after the horror should be removed from office. It is not so much that they all deserve it, and they certainly do, but it is more important that the American government shows its people and the world that it knows what treason is and it won’t stand for it. Repair has two prongs. First, we must bring back civility and reality to politics and its constituencies. Hopefully the horror shook up the politicians enough to understand how bad behavior can get out of control. Second, the Republican party must come back to its senses and reject Trumpism forever. An impeachment conviction with a second vote to bar him from office is a start. But the Republican party will then need to redefine what it stands for (the recent convention didn’t really even discuss policy) and then it must convert the Trumpers. No easy task, especially with a deranged Trump on the sidelines.
It is natural and healthy for a functional democracy to have a left, a right, and a center with respectful debate and compromise about the issues. Can we get that back?