I realize I have given some people WAY too much benefit of the doubt.
I’ve been watching some of my “conservative”, “patriotic”, “law and order” friends post some of the most spastic, juvenile, intellectually dishonest, 2 sentence temper tantrum insult posts I have ever seen in my life over the past few weeks. A lot of them aren’t, but some of these MAGA folks are losing their freakin’ minds.
I don’t care who you are — if you are OK with what happened at the Capitol or with the intentional campaign to undermine faith in the election that lead up to it in any way, shape or form, you have lost your way as an American and as a civilized human being.
I can’t believe I actually know anyone who falls into this category, but sadly, it appears that I do.
Most people are good people motivated by good things, including many millions of good people who bet on a fraud out of populist desperation after every other politician in both parties failed them. (Read that last sentence again!) But if you’re OK with mobs attempting to overthrow lawful governments by force, you aren’t one of them. Spare me your self righteous mythology about 1776. This wasn’t Samuel Adams. What we saw at the Capitol, but more importantly, what we have seen in the campaign to insist the election was rigged and illegitimate, even after it was proven not to be, wasn’t an attempted defense of the tree of liberty. It was an attack on it.
Rule of law appears to mean nothing to some of you people. You don’t need courts — or ballot boxes — (or even legislatures apparently!) because you’re content to have judge, jury and executioner be one person — as long as it’s you or your agent. A sentiment that couldn’t possibly be any less American.
You are on the wrong side of history, and on the wrong side of everything America stands for if you have anything other than arrest and conviction in your heart for these so called patriots who attacked Congress in a clear attempt at sedition. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly. I hope you come back to civil society, which never went anywhere and still welcomes you. It is YOU who has moved away from the light of the rule of law and into the dark corner of lawless tyranny, not the other way around. General Mattis never moved an inch. You did.
It’s not a conspiracy. The election wasn’t stolen. That’s fact, not opinion. We know this is fact, because we have a legal process for evaluating facts, and in every contested state, the courts have said so. Nobody gets to mob up and change that. Do we need to reform and standardize the election processes so that Americans across all party lines can have greater confidence in them? Of course we do. It’s criminal it wasn’t done nationwide following Bush v. Gore, as we all knew a close, contested election would happen again. But that failure hasn’t rendered this election fraudulent, and neither has anything else.
The issue here isn’t rioting. The issue here is an attempt to overturn a lawful election, as determined by legal processes. That is our system for resolving disputes. Rioting is certainly a problem that bears discussing, and those on the left who choose rioting over non-violent civil disobedience in the pursuit of social justice reforms are without question choosing the wrong tactic — both for being effective in advancing socio-economic equity / police reform issues, and for being effective in the claiming of the moral high ground. But on the scale of right and wrong, the significance of rioting (by either side) is marginal compared to the seriousness of undermining faith in free and fair elections and in attempting to overthrow the government by force.
It’s not rocket science — it’s politics. Republicans put up a polarizing candidate with historically high negative poll numbers, who brought out a bunch of “not on my watch” votes from people who normally don’t turn out. That exact same dynamic seemed so obvious to Republicans when it led to Hillary’s defeat in 2016. It’s surprising to me that so many Republicans don’t seem to see it as obvious today, just as it was surprising to me that so many Democrats didn’t seem to see it was obvious in the aftermath of 2016. Gosh, I wonder why turnout has been so high the last 2 elections? It’s because a lot of people only show up when they want to say HELL NO.
Time to pick a side, MAGA Nation. I hope you pick the side of law and order.
