It is hard to believe it has been two years since we were shocked and sickened by the riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It was a shameful and violent assault carried out at the behest of a defeated President refusing to accept the results of a democratic election and determined to hold onto power. Where do things stand on this somber milestone and where are we going next, as a country?
Although charges haven’t been formally filed yet, most legal scholars closely monitoring the Justice Department investigation of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators, say it is just a matter of time before the indictments come down. Whatever the evidence is uncovered by DOJ, it has only been bolstered by the Jan. 6th Committee’s work, which just made its investigation and reports public, recommending four specific charges. Yes, we know, the Special Prosecutor has only been looking at the evidence for just over a month, so give him some time right? But how much more do they need, for the love of God? For those of us out here in “The lyin’, cheatin’-bastards-must-be-held-accountable-for-attempting-to- overthrow-our-democracy-Land”, it can’t come soon enough.
However, the wheels of justice grind slowly and steadily most of the time, and patience is a virtue more of us should work on in the new year. I am confident though, that sometime this year Trump will be held accountable by the American justice system for some form of seditious conspiracy as well as be charged for his blatant and nefarious theft and mishandling of confidential and top-secret US Government documents. And just because he has been rapidly losing the status and esteem amongst his Shifting-to-Desantis base does not mean he gets a pass now and should be free to sail off into the sunset from the dock at his Palace of Influence Peddling. Poor poor Trump.
The same misguided and infected mindset that culminated two years ago in the storming of the Capitol on January 6th and chants of “hang Mike Pence” is on full display in the House of Representatives this week as the Republican Party engages in an interminable circular firing squad in an attempt to define their purpose, out Trump each other, and pick a Speaker. Simultaneous to the inter-party backbiting and bloviated grandstanding is a lot of talk about doing the Peoples’ work and respecting the demands of the “people” (aka, their right-wing base in their politically uncompetitive districts). Ironically many in the super majority supporting McCarthy have been whining a lot about the small rebel faction refusing to respect their democratic choice for the Speaker. Not too many of these same GOP House members were concerned about respecting the democratic will of the American people when they voted on the house floor not to certify the results of a free and fair election where over 80 million voters picked Joe Biden to be President. An election that was certified by the states and upheld in court case after court case and ultimately by the Supreme Court itself. Nope. So much for democracy in that case. It’s great when “we” win, just inconvenient and something to work around when we don’t is their new mantra. Power for power’s sake is the driving philosophy of the new Ultra MAGA GOP. The ends justify the means.
Where did they learn that from? Where did they learn to tolerate threats and even overt acts of political violence towards their opponents or anyone not on their side? Hmmm, let’s think about it. Well of course they learned it from the same unprincipled individual. This ultra-right-wing MAGA, hostage-taking, chaos-caucus bunch now holding up the functioning of our government, watched Trump for the last six years and learned from the master. They learned how to raise money and run for office by being a loud-mouthed, divisive, no compromising, culture warrior with no interest in actually governing or crafting good public policy. The “what’s in it for me?”- philosophy runs strong with this TV-showboating, tear-it-all-down pack of carnival barkers salivating for the next migrant crime story or transgender bathroom spectacular to lose their mind over.
Unfortunately, what comes next may not be much better. The final outcome of this WWE House Speaker battle is unknown. Can McCarthy thread the needle to win the title of Head Wrangler in the wildest high-on-conspiracy, possibly high on human growth Hormone and steroids, and definitely insurrectionist-infused goat rodeo of a House of Representatives ever? We’ll see if he wins the prize at the expense of his dignity and giving away the farm to the crazies.
We also know that what’s coming next is Trump 2.0, Ron DeSantis. His fear-mongering, bullying, divisive style of politics is basically the same as what we got from the former guy, just a little more polished and Yale-clean cut. His strategy is transparent though and seems to hinge on demonizing those who are different, throwing gasoline on the fires of the culture wars, and owning the Libs and defeating Wokism… whatever that actually means if anything. I guess to him it means fighting those who champion social justice, equal rights, and protecting the environment – all three of those being pretty stand-up and legit causes in my book, all firmly rooted in the bending arc of our American moral fiber. But he sure knows what works up his base. Good on you little Ronnie. Oh, I can’t forget DeSantis’s other strategy to attract voters, by financially punishing private businesses that defend their employees and disagree with him on his culturally divisive issue of the day. It worked pretty well in this last election here in Florida, unfortunately, but we’ll see if the nation at large starts to grow tired of his angry, petulant style of governing and campaigning. He’s much more Benito Mussolini than Ronald Reagan. And just like Kevin McCarthy, DeSantis is way too ambitious and overtly power-hungry to be good for the general welfare of the country as a whole.
The hope is that out here on the streets and in towns across the country enough independents & center-left and center-right Americans in the moderate majority continue to grow resentful of the extremism and bomb-throwing threatening our institutions and the fabric of civilized society. Let’s hope they/we can stay strong enough and continue to demand decency and responsibility from our public servants and elected officials, who by the way we should expect to work across the aisle, compromise from time to time, and make good deals on our behalf.
And we must continue to demand reforms that shift the dynamic back to the center of the body politic like moving to ranked-choice elections and ending extreme partisan gerrymandering. Steps like these would revive governing from the center and eliminate most of the nihilists, election-deniers, and Never Keviners hell-bent on burning down the whole place. If you do win Kevin, lots of good luck governing with that bunch, you’re going to need it.