Toro
Diamond Member
The party has a choice: Be the party of the Constitution, or be the party of batshit crazy QAnon conspiracies. It canāt be both.
The leader of that flank of the mob, later identified by the FBI as Douglas Jensen, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a red-white-and-blue Qāthe insignia of the delusional QAnon conspiracy theory. Its supporters believe that a righteous Donald Trump is leading them in a historic quest to expose the U.S. governmentās capture by a global network of cannibalistic pedophiles: not just ādeep stateā actors in the intelligence community, but Chief Justice John Roberts and a dozen-plus senators, including me. Now Trumpās own vice president is supposedly in on it, too. According to the FBI, Jensen āwanted to have his T-shirt seen on video so that āQā could āget the credit.āā
If USMB is any indication, the party is sliding into the swamp of crazy.
Eugene Goodman is an American hero. At a pivotal moment on January 6, the veteran United States Capitol Police officer single-handedly prevented untold bloodshed. Staring down an angry, advancing mob, he retreated up a marble staircase, calmly wielding his baton to delay his pursuers while calling out their position to his fellow officers. At the top of the steps, still alone and standing just a few yards from the chamber where senators and Vice President Mike Pence had been certifying the Electoral Collegeās vote, Goodman strategically lured dozens of the mayhem-minded away from an unguarded door to the Senate floor.
The leader of that flank of the mob, later identified by the FBI as Douglas Jensen, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a red-white-and-blue Qāthe insignia of the delusional QAnon conspiracy theory. Its supporters believe that a righteous Donald Trump is leading them in a historic quest to expose the U.S. governmentās capture by a global network of cannibalistic pedophiles: not just ādeep stateā actors in the intelligence community, but Chief Justice John Roberts and a dozen-plus senators, including me. Now Trumpās own vice president is supposedly in on it, too. According to the FBI, Jensen āwanted to have his T-shirt seen on video so that āQā could āget the credit.āā
January 6 is a new red-letter day in U.S. history, not just because it was the first time that the Capitol had been ransacked since the War of 1812, but because a subset of the invaders apparently were attempting to disrupt a constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress, kidnap the vice president, and somehow force him to declare Trump the victor in an election he lost. En route, the mob ultimately injured scores of law-enforcement officers. The attack led to the deaths of two officers and four other Americans. But the toll could have been much worse: Police located pipe bombs at the headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic National Committees. Investigators discovered a vehicle fully loaded with weaponry and what prosecutors are calling āhomemade napalm bombs.ā
The violence that Americans witnessedāand that might recur in the coming daysāis not a protest gone awry or the work of āa few bad apples.ā It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice. When Trump leaves office, my party faces a choice: We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them. We can be the party of Eisenhower, or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones. We can applaud Officer Goodman or side with the mob he outwitted. We cannot do both.
If and when the House sends its article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate, I will be a juror in his trial, and thus what I can say in advance is limited. But no matter what happens in that trial, the Republican Party faces a separate reckoning. Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon. They canāt. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them. Now is the time to decide what this party is about.
If USMB is any indication, the party is sliding into the swamp of crazy.