Yeah, it’s Ross Douthat, actin’ all craven on our asses once more, “explaining”, and explaining away, the Jan. 6 riot as, perhaps, not really that big a deal after all, so why don’t those big-mouth Democrats stop talking about it 24/7 and, in particular, stop, you know, denouncing people just for defending it, because “However shameful some of the spin that Trump defenders settled on to explain away the day’s violence, they had material to work with in the sheer strangeness of the riot, which in a polarized atmosphere inevitably yielded to warring interpretations of its meaning.”
Well, no, Ross. There was no “material” to work with. The “warring interpretations” generated by your party were generated by your party because your party is the party of lawlessness and crime. The pathetic “hope” voiced in your column, “Warnock Wins, and Once Again Trump Loses”—that your party will get tired of Trump not because he is a murderer but because he is a loser—only reflects your continuing fear that if you tell your party that Trump is a murderer then they will murder you. If only Donald Trump would just disappear, without Ross Douthat having to do a damn thing! That would be so nice!
Afterwords
In his column, Ross “explains” that post-Jan. 6 Senate Majority Leader Mtich McConnell was “cautious”, while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was “craven” in their dealings with Trump. Yeah, like the way the “cautious” McConnell prevented the Senate from considering the articles of impeachment against Trump while he was still in office, and then led his party to vote against the articles in the new Congress on the grounds that Trump was no longer in office. Deal wins and winner deals.
Special Woody Allen Afterwords
Back in the day, Woody Allen used to tell a joke that I never thought was funny, but he obviously did, because he used to tell it quite often:
A man goes to his shrink and he says “Doc, I have a problem. See, it’s my brother. He thinks he’s a chicken.” The shrink says “Well, that’s not a problem. Send him to me, and I’ll straighten him out.” And the guy says, “I would, but I need the eggs.”
Here’s the Ross Douthat version:
A guy goes to confession and he says “Father, I have a problem. My party just nominated a murderer as our candidate for President of the United States.” The priest says “Why, that’s terrible! You must do everything you possibly can to defeat him!” And the guy says, “I would, but there are a couple of dozen people I want him to murder for me first.”
Is there a parallel (even a crooked one) to the GOP’s nonaction after January 6 in the history of our constitutional democracy?
No.