The Republicans didn't issue an "authorized" statement on the January 6th insurrection, but into that vacuum steps two idiots: Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who were more than ready to spew their particular brand of crazy. Here is just a little of the shit they spread courtesy of the Washington Post:
“We did not want the Republican voice to go unheard, and we did not want today’s historical narrative to be hijacked by those who were the true insurrectionists,” Gaetz said. And so, in a meeting room in the Cannon House Office Building, two flights up from where Democratic lawmakers were at the same time recalling their personal horrors from Jan. 6, the duo spent 37 minutes telling reporters that Jan. 6 was a “fed-surrection,” a plot perpetrated by the FBI.
“What if those Capitol Police officers are victims?” Gaetz asked. “What if they’re victims of an orchestrated effort by the FBI or other federal law enforcement to increase the criminal acuity of that day?” Such “Department of Justice and FBI assets and informants,” Gaetz alleged, were also responsible for the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
Greene, chiming in, also blamed the FBI for the 2014Bundy land dispute in Nevada. “Another example would be in 1968, the Democratic National Convention, when there were 10,000 protesters and one out of six were federal undercover agents,” she continued.
The op-ed from which this sprang also got it right: "...in the absence of any other Republican response, theirs became the Republican response." Republicans chose not to speak on January 6th and those that did were the Loony Toons faction of the party that more and more have come to represent the majority. Good luck dealing with people who posit that the '68 Democratic convention was filled with undercover Feds and that same agency actually actively participated in the insurrection as well as plotted to kidnap a sitting governor. The crazy is real.
Shawn: "And please don't think that for a second that I condone what happened on January 6, 2021. I was disgusted that day but I also believe that a Starbucks or Target being burnt down which leaves employees without a job to be pretty disgusting too. "
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You reject the violence of January 6th, but you also mentioned that your friend's son went that day. Even though he resisted participating in the violence, your friend's son was still at a protest about a rigged election. Do you think your friend's son was justified in going at all? Do you believe the election was rigged and Trump actually won?
I believe my friend's son has the right to assemble. Do I have to agree with him? No. As far as the election goes, I don't believe that Trump won.
When I said that I lean to the right, I also am not defined by my political beliefs. Just because I'm a registered Republican doesn't mean that those politicians get a free pass from me. I vote for people, not the letter that follows their name. Not sure if that's your philosophy or not but honestly, I don't care. I can come on this forum and have a conversation with you about comics, movies, and television shows, I don't need to know who you vote for. I've pretty much told you enough you need to know about my political philosophy. My point in participating in this thread was just to make my point about how divided we are and what I feel contributes to that.
Something that guides my philosophy: I've played sports and worked as team with people with different philosophies and backgrounds and I train in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu to this day. I train with cops, military, hippies, teachers, artists, and people with other backgrounds. We share the love of martial arts and we all have different backgrounds. Not one of those people cares who votes for who and we're bonded by our shared experience. Want to have a conversation? No problem but that's where it ends. We focus on our shared experience, not what separates us.
C.S. Lewis would be the man we need to put this argument to bed, with his law of universal morality. I'm sorry, Shawn, but going to Washington DC on that day to exercise the right to assemble at Trump's White House rally was in itself an immoral act. There was plenty of advance notice that it was going to be more than just turning up for a rally, from third parties with a history of violence and anti-patriotic rhetoric and directly from Trump and his public allies. When the Commander in Chief tweets "it's going to be wild" to his civilian followers, it doesn't suggest to any thinking individual that it's going to be limited to a speech and then a peaceful protest.
If Trump had never made any incitements to violence at his rallies, then your friend could be allowed off the hook after the fact with a clear conscience. But incitement to mob violence, either directly or subtextually, is Trump's stock in trade, and his followers are aware of it and either like it or look the other way (which is of questionable morality in and of itself, as goddamn KARL ROVE just pointed out in his anniversary essay in the WSJ).
Lastly, choosing to believe the Trump narrative about the election after two solid months of court rulings firmly establishing that there was no evidence that could pass legal muster simply shows that anyone who showed up wanted to be incited to riot, whether they admit it or not. The truth had been proven, and proven, and proven. To willfully choose not to believe in a well-publicized truth is of fuzzy morality, but to then act in accordance with your own counterfactual belief system when you are aware of the immoral aspect is, well, universally immoral.
Trump's ongoing insurrection is driven by incoherence and moral illiteracy. My MAGA cousin was among the 1/6 rioters, and he insists he witnessed no violence and doesn't even support Trump. (He replied to pleas to stand down that day with threats to show up at people's houses.) He also believes violence is necessary and justified to depose Biden, and that COVID is a hoax and yadda yadda yadda, all of which make him a Trump supporter whether he admits it or not.
I cut off contact after ignoring his posts and messages for more than a year; I glanced into my junk folder and saw his idea of political dialogue had degenerated into taunting me about the price of insulin.