Some random, admittedly scattered, observations from this newbie:
1. Those who feel the insurrectionists should somehow be immune to consequences because of perceived inequities in comparable consequences for the "the left" arising from BLM protests seem to encapsulate our current politics perfectly. My team has a get-out-of-jail free card because of a grievance I hold against the other team. Two wrongs make a right, indeed. It needs to stop, but it won't. The right wing media went right back to painting "the left" as evil right after this event, and for good reason. It obviously works. This "reasoning" is constantly promoted for this very moment. Strange so few can see it. Even stranger, those who believe the FBI is somehow being unfair to their team. They do realize, do they not, that the FBI is currently run by their team? The guy at the FBI making these decisions was literally hand picked and is directly controlled by Donald J. Trump himself? I suppose this isn't unique, they also believe the election was "stolen" by "the left" in states which, in reality, the election laws and administration of the elections runs under those laws, was by their team. I understand why they believe this. It has been pounded into their heads by the current President and those who promote him.
2. The falsely equivalent "coups" is equally odd, and predicated silently on the same reasoning that two wrongs make a right. It's false, of course. Impeachment is not a "coup." It's right there in the constitution, freely available to read at your leisure. You may disagree whether it was wise to exercise that constitutional power, but that ain't a coup, anymore than the Republican effort to impeach Clinton for receipt of fellatio was a coup. Attempting to prevent Congress from counting the votes of those who decided to fire your guy, on the other hand, now we are talking real coup. The constitution in fact requires those votes to be counted. Again, freely available to confirm at your leisure. And most sad of all, these "patriots" think they are actually ENFORCING the constitution by preventing it from being followed. I suppose it is equally sad that the pretext for needing to act as such a "patriot" is based on false claims of a "stolen" election. Again, should you actually care what the constitution in fact provides, it says the states send the votes to Congress to be counted. The states determine what is valid. The states decided if an election was "stolen." And your team, in fact, was the team deciding these elections were not, in fact, "stolen" in any way. Regardless, absent two sets of certified votes sent to Congress (which did not exist despite the efforts of conservatives to convince you they did with fake "alternative" electors), every congressman knew that there was nothing constitutionally they could do to stop Biden being declared the winner. Stunts aside, they really did know this. They just keep playing you the fool.
3. In my humble opinion, all of this flows directly from years of conditioning from right wing media, masterfully adopted and expanded by Trump, to lead the public to believe they are being grievously trampled on by fictitious wrongs from the evil, satanic left. At least for today, you are free to believe that. That may change, should the dude dressed as Chewbacca declare himself Dear Leader. But I often ponder whether one day it will simply hit these people like a ton of bricks that they are being manipulated with lies, on purpose, by those who know better. It's all right there should you wish to learn it. Did you really come to believe, as Trump and the right-wing led you to believe, that Pence had the constitutional authority to reject certified ballots from the states? When even Mitch McConnell, who never would miss an even questionably viable constitutional opportunity to screw the left (see, e.g., Merrick Garland, and lol at the irony he will now be the AG overseeing what to do with all this), tells you this is bullshit does it cause a moment of pause? You do know that others, such as Ted Cruz and Scott Hawley, are more than aware that what they are saying about the constitutional power to overturn an election simply isn't real? And that they know this yet see an opportunity to gain favor from you by inventing a grievance from which they may derive monetary or political favor from you? When yesterday Mr. Hawley tweeted about the "mob" at Simon & Schuster who violated his First Amendment rights by refusing to publish his book, you understand, do you not, that Mr. Hawley KNOWS this is not a correct statement regarding the law, and he is doing it for political and financial interests to enrage you?
It will takes years for the cognitive dissonance created by Trump and his enablers, in otherwise well-intended citizens, to wear off. What a travesty.
God bless America.
www.foxnews.com
www.cnsnews.com
