There will be consequences for the Republican party's whitewashing and denial of what happened on January 6th. In reality, there have already been consequences, but this is going to get big and ugly, especially if the right-wing media continues the way they started after yesterday's hearings. Four police officers, from the Capitol and Washington, DC police departments, gave testimony about their experiences. The response from GOP leadership and their deplorable right wing media defenders has confirmed the addition of a set of new values to the list of things that Republicans consider important.
Blue lives do not matter to Republicans.
The testimony by those four police officers should have prompted a unanimous outpouring of support and instantaneous condemnation of anyone who participated in that insurrection. You cannot attack police officers while claiming to support police officers. If you believe in law and order, you don't organize into a mob, bring combat gear, weapons and chemicals to attack police, beat them, shove them, stab at them with the sharp end of a pole flying an American flag or a MAGA banner, threaten to kill them with their own weapons, shout racial epithets at them and overrun the building they have been assigned to protect.
So let's go ahead and put this on the new list of Republican values.
The Republican Party is NOT the party of law and order.
If they were, they never would have permitted Donald Trump to get into the nomination process in the first place. They would have stood up to his bullying and if there had been a price to pay at the polls, which I doubt would have happened if they had stopped this insanity before it got started, they would have been willing to pay it. That's what standing up for law and order means.
If Republicans were the party of law and order, they'd be lining up to support this committee. They would have verbally condemned Trump for his role in inciting it, which requires simple observation and reading a few social media posts. They wouldn't be calling it "politics." In fact, Trump's post-election lies about voter fraud and claims that he really won an election that he clearly didn't win have already had consequences because Republicans made it political. They lost two senate seats in Georgia as a result. They are going to lose a lot more down the road.
The Republican Party does NOT support the American Republic and the Constitution.
The Trump Insurrection on January 6th was aimed at disrupting a constitutional requirement of Congress, at overturning or nullifying the results of a legitimate election. There is a legitimate, legal way to contest the results of an election. It requires showing real evidence that there was a deliberate attempt to subvert the will of the voters. Trump took full advantage of every constitutional provision and states rights that he had at his disposal to bring evidence that would support his claim of massive voter fraud.
No such evidence existed. It was clear, from what was presented in the courts, that there was no massive voter fraud, and, in fact, that the opposite was true. This was actually one of the most fraud-free elections in history. Trump's legal team faced the dilemma of risking their careers and being disbarred for bringing witnesses with phony testimony into courtrooms to support claims of fraud. State election officials in the states where the results were challenged were well prepared, had their evidence in hand, and easily convinced the courts, including a number of Trump-appointed judges, that the vote tally was accurate.
And so we can add yet another new value to the GOP's list.
Republicans do not support free and fair elections.
That's what the Trump Insurrection on January 6th was all about. You could see this coming. Trump whined and screamed about potential voter fraud well in advance of the election to set up his base. They knew they weren't going to win. There was some silliness among Trumpies claiming that there was no way Biden could have won since Trump had bigger rallies and Biden just campaigned from his basement. But if you look at the legislation passed by Republican-dominated legislatures to restrict access to the polls, you can see exactly where they think they lost and it's disturbing to see that making it easy to vote and giving more access to voting is what they see as a problem for them.
This committee investigation is going to have consequences for the GOP. Support for conducting the investigation is already over 60%. It's sagged a bit since January 6th, but will go back up as the videos of the Trump Insurrection keep getting played, the testimony that is being heard is broadcast and people realize what actually happened. This wasn't just a Trump rally going off the wheels, this was a planned event, intended to disrupt the certification of electoral votes, and subvert the will of the voters.
This is on the Republican Party to bring about a just resolution. Until Republicans step up, acknowledge this for exactly what it was and clean up the mess in their own party, they will have to accept criticism like this and the consequences that come about as a result. There are real, criminal consequences that should be the result of this investigation. May justice prevail. Until that happens, no Republican can call themselves a patriot.
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