Yeah, sure, that’s the ticket. Appeal to the ululating Republican masses with, you know, bloodless calculation! Because nothing gratifies a feral, nihilistic bloodlust like, you know, reason!
That’s the latest, and perhaps most pathetic, stunt attempted by National Review dudes David Bahnsen and Rich Lowry, among other soulless cowards, to reap the rewards of Donald Trump’s crimes without actually getting any blood on their hands. Observe, for example, the angst of Dave, struggling to disguise his ever-increasing alarm at the ever-increasing moisture content of his BVDs whilst earnestly attempting to generalize the “moral” of Republican candidate Larry Elder’s 20-percentage point defeat in the recent California gubernatorial recall after embracing the über Trump trope that Democrats can only win through massive vote fraud:
Perhaps you think the 2020 election was stolen. I don’t, but that is not the point here. What is the point is that the narrative of the recall became a brand consideration—did independents and moderates want to be branded as election-fraud conspiracists?
“I don’t, but that is not the point here.” Uh huh, Dave, uh huh. Allow me to unpack that for you a little: Please don’t eat me!
I’ll give Rich a smidgeon more credit—not that I particularly want to—for showing a smidgeon more courage than Dave, going so far as to label Trump’s grotesque lies as “unproven allegations”:
It’s one thing to complain about last-minute changes in voting procedures in 2020 and to advocate for a system that is secure and tilts toward in-person voting; it’s another to retail unproven allegations that, for most people, will always be associated with Trump’s worst excesses and the rioting at the U.S. Capitol.
Oh, and calling the invasion of the U. S. Capitol at Trump’s express bidding “rioting”? Impressive, Rich, impressive! Keep it up! In time, telling the truth might even get to be a habit with you! Stranger things have happened! Probably!
