See Who The GOP is Siding With

 

Sgt. Gonell, who is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and a naturalized U.S. citizen, says that one of the Capitol rioters "saw my skin color and said you’re not even an American." pic.twitter.com/NpI2L8N1fP

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 27, 2021

Sgt. Gonell was a professional law enforcement officer doing his job against a criminal, domestic terrorist mob that day, and Trump's little violent fan club did not see him as a fellow American. They also called him a "traitor" and a disgrace" for doing his job that day, because they apparently had no idea that they, that day, were the barbarians at the gate. They called his fellow officer Harry Dunn racial slurs, looking past his uniform and only seeing him as a man of color and a Biden supporter. Michael Fanone was also called a "traitor", and had to plead that he had a family for fear that these people might kill him with his own firearm. Officer Daniel Hodges recounts being asked if he was their "brother" by the domestic terrorists, because they didn't understand why a white police officer wasn't on their side.

The picture these officers relate is certainly not one of a patriotic love-in that seems to exist only in the delusional mind of the loser of the 2020 presidential election. It was a largely white/Christian supremacist violent insurrection, which certainly did include people who were armed that day, or who made weapons of whatever object fell to hand. 

Republicans (other than Cheney and Kinzinger) wanted to distract from all of this. They wanted to blame Nancy Pelosi for things that had nothing to do with her, like Rep. Elise Stefanik claiming that somehow she was responsible for the security situation that day. For one thing, the Speaker of the House doesn't control the DC National Guard, the President does. (From the website: "This authority to activate the D.C. National Guard has been delegated, by the President, to the Secretary of Defense and further delegated to the Secretary of the Army.  The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit, out of all of the 54 states and territories, which reports only to the President. " )

What Stefanik is doing is basically the Benghazi "stand down" ruse--claiming something must have happened that almost certainly under the circumstances makes no sense within the timing or for any plausible motivation, but might sound plausible to people who really fucking hate liberal politicians. Why in the world would Nancy Pelosi, certainly a target of the mob, not want her workplace and her very own ass defended? That's just stupid, and while Stefanik is probably not an actual idiot, she should be very definitely upbraided for promoting such a stupid easily debunked lie for no other reason than cynical politics. 

But she is not alone in being a signifying distraction. 

The four lowest forms of congressional life: Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert, and Gosar, tried to stage a weird stunt where they wanted to elicit sympathy for the conditions of the poor benighted goobers who believed the kinds of things lying assholes like Gaetz, Greene, Gohmert and Gosar said aloud prior to and on 1/6 and wound up doing crimes and being put through a little old thing we in America call the legal justice system. They had to end their stupid futile stunt because someone was blowing a rape  whistle at them, and well, exactly. 

As far as I'm concerned, those jumped up jackwagons should be greeted with that kind of scorn every time they open their filthholes. This wasn't a case of "the intolerant left cancelling their freeze peach" or whatever. What they were trying to do out there was frankly just sickening because they know for goddamn sure they are culpable of incitement. They were getting shut up because they seriously should get to shutting up. (And maybe a good lawyer should tell them as much, given that Mo Brooks just got told by the House counsel and the DOJ that they are just fine if he's about to go through some things for his extracurricular pursuits.) 

But somehow, the unkindest cut is the sheer dismissal of the proceedings in an actual investigation into an attack on the Capitol by supposed leaders  of the Republican Party. I've talked about "Sunshine Patriots" before, but I'm so much more disgusted by them now than ever before, because of the direct harm to so many Americans and even our American way of life that they are dismissing with their cavalier "I see nothing" attitude".  

Sen. Mitch McConnell wasn't bothered to see the hearing.  Rep. Kevin McCarthy claims he was in back-to-back meetings, which I take to mean a haircut and a shoeshine. Sen. John Kennedy doesn't just say he didn't watch, but vilifies the genuine emotion of over a hundred Capitol officers being abused by Trump partisans as "drama".  Pelosi's drama, as if she is evoking the pathos as a woman politician, instead of the whole situation just being grotesque and tragic. 

On January 6, I was gutted by what happened, but thought that maybe, this was a deciding moment for people who had sided with Trump for too long and for too many wrong reasons, and I wanted to believe that the enormity of what happened would be a road to Damascus moment for more than a few. But here they are, still on their bullshit. Their offensive and racist and sedition-supporting bullshit. 

We can't find common ground with people who want us gone. The Q dumbasses who comprise no small portion of the insurrectionists that day literally want the slaughter of liberals. Violence and casual dismissal of the violence is their current SOP. Right down to allowing any number of Republican citizens dying of COVID because what the hell--it will kill some minorities and some shitlibs while they are at it. 

I guess I'm not demoralized by it.  My ability to still feel shock at how low people can go means I'm still alive and I want to fuck up their shit. But Republicans in general have gone so low and I am so disgusted it's tiring. And there seem to be so many who don't get that Trump was seriously bin Laden for a situation that could have been so much worse. 

And so long as we don't get the outrage, don't fully process it, don't acknowledge how bad it was, it could happen again.  And the bitter truth is, GOP leadership would greatly prefer that. Because they know winning elections is hard, and one day all the spending in the world won't catch up to how different their world view is from the actual people they want to make laws for. 

We are a bloody brilliant experiment as to whether a government of, for, and by the people should long endure. We never did this exactly right but we certainly get nearer all the time. And we should keep the experiment alive. Because that's patriotism. Not whatever McCarthy and them are trying. 

They must fail for America's future to succeed.