Whitewashing history.
Did Trump do anything wrong? Not really.
It's the new "Lost Cause."
One of my Republican friends wrote me:
"I am not a fan of former President Donald Trump but I do not think that Trump was responsible for the January event, although he certainly added to it. But wasn't that just politics? His speech that day included the word 'peaceably,' and that is removed from all reports. Also did he ask for the National Guard? Where was the security?"
It was a casual email, full of typos, dashed off from a phone. The comment, which I will keep anonymous, is similar to others I have received in recent weeks from my circle of Republican friends. Republican voters -- even educated, responsible, civic-minded ones -- are absorbing a revisionist message. Trump's attempt to overthrow the 2020 election wasn't an affront to democracy, after all. January 6 was just politics. Trump was innocent, the rioters are "hostages," and the prosecutors are the bad guys. Trump's effort to overthrow the election is the new Lost Cause.
The Lost Cause was the South's re-remembering of the Civil War not as an effort to maintain slavery, but rather as a gallant and heroic effort to maintain happy Southern communities and homelife against Northern meddling, tyranny, and aggression. Slaves were content. The war was about states' rights. The South was the good guy and a victim, and it remains proud and defiant because its cause was just. Nikki Haley revealed that the Lost Cause idea persists and it is dangerous to deny it outright.
This email example shows that protecting Trump from blame isn't just the political necessity of GOP politicians afraid to say aloud that their party leader attempted a coup d' état. Mitt Romney's recent book describes cynical but practical GOP leaders placating deluded partisans.
He said that if impeachment votes were by secret ballot Trump would have been overwhelmingly convicted by the Senate.
In the aftermath of January 6, most Republican leaders recognized that something very wrong and dangerous had taken place. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham condemned the January 6 attack and attempted to put the Big Lie to rest.
Joe Biden, I've traveled the world with him. I hoped he'd lost. I prayed he'd lose. He won! He's a legitimate president of the United States! . . . Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected.
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Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), in the aftermath of the second impeachment trial, said,
January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens . . . did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.
Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. . . .
It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup . . . .
It was obvious that only President Trump could end this.
Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies frantically called the administration. But the president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed, and order restored.
Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily as the chaos unfolded. He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election!
Trump is still pressing and defending that scheme. His messaging is working. The Lost Cause story is drifting out and up into the GOP electorate. More Republicans justify what happened on January 6 now than did three years ago. They remember differently what they saw on TV. The rioters weren't rioting. It was peaceful. Or maybe the FBI planned it. The Capitol Police overreacted. Nancy Pelosi should have known Trump's people would storm the Capitol, so it's her fault. If Mike Pence had just listened to reason, none of this would have happened. Trump said "peaceably," so he did nothing wrong.
Republicans are dealing with the embarrassment of a flawed party leader by changing the history, not changing the leader. Trump is defiant. He is a modern-day Robert E. Lee. He defends the homeland against tyranny and aggression. He says things were good before the attack on the Capitol, the rioters were patriots, and he will never surrender. This new Lost Cause is a comfortable idea. One's team is still "the good guy" of the narrative.
The Lost Cause isn't really lost. Trump will rise again and that is OK, because he did nothing wrong.
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18 comments:
As usual, reality lies somewhere between the proposed poles. They WERE rioting; they WERE violent, not peaceful…..but no, we did not Almost Lose Our Democracy during the short delay before Biden was duly certified.
The “Lost Cause” story is not “drifting out and up into the GOP electorate”. It’s an overheated Democratic campaign trope for 2024 now that Bidenomics has failed to resonate with voters and the world is mired in upheaval.
DeSantis and Haley are reportedly surging in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively. They debate tonight on CNN. Trump and the Democrats, meanwhile, join in the fervent hope that fixation on 2021 is a not a lost cause.
For the umpteenth time, this is how cults work. Also, people believe what they want to believe, especially if they perceive it to be in their own self-interest. The truth can be very inconvenient. Sick, dysfunctional families are the same way. The GQP is a large dysfunctional family/cult.
Talk about rewriting history: Those who think the attack on our Capitol was the sum and substance of Trump’s coup attempt obviously aren’t paying attention. The truth was spelled out in the House committee hearings and will be again during his trials.
Trump observed the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by glorifying people charged in the riot, repeating baseless claims that left-wing or government interlopers caused the breach, and accusing his opponents of insurrection. What he’s basically saying is that violence and criminality is okay if it’s in service of his power.
Republicans became devoted to a pathological liar and now the party’s very identity is predicated on his most dangerous lie, that the election was stolen. It’s proof that insanity can be contagious: The entire once-grand old party has become as batshit crazy as Trump.
Good liars stick with the lie until there are real consequences for the lie. When you commit fraud, keep giving plausible explanations on why it isn’t fraud, then when in jail acknowledge that yes, you had been lying all along. The hope for the good liar is that by kicking the can down the road maybe you can avoid the jail part. In Trump’s case he has people assisting in the lie. Did Turkey massacre the Armenian people by the millions in 1915? They are still sticking to the lie or is that a mass delusion?
I was 30 years old at the time of the Watergate hearings and I followed them closely. Still, as I read to refresh my recollection this morning, I found that Howard Baker and Barry Goldwater and other Republicans were not the truth tellers I thought I remembered, but were supporters of Nixon's narrative until the end.
Likewise, supporters of the war in Vietnam remain even to this day asserting that the U.S. didn't lose, just lost the will. Admitting one was wrong is hard. It is no wonder lost cause narratives develop.
I am convinced that Romney and Cheney and Kinzinger will look back at their actions when they reach the age I am now and be proud of what they said and did. Even McNamara finally got it right about Vietnam, but it was too late for his personal redemption.
An analogy used during the Vietnam war was that when you realize you have made a wrong turn, take your foot off the gas and turn around. Like others I have found it hard personally to admit I was wrong, but we all have to keep trying to get it right.
My experience of people who begin by saying "I'm not a fan of Trump, but" are lying to me or whomever they are speaking to. They may be superficially uncomfortable with the crudity and garbled syntax, but in their hearts, they are cheering him on, and will most certainly vote for him.
The economy is doing great by every metric.
The GOPee knows its messaging on the economy has failed which is why its latest hate is about immigration.
On January 7 or 8, 2021, I listened to the Bill Meyer show on KMED. That day, and ever since, the discussion of the January 6th riot on his program boils down to a promotion of beliefs about the January 6th riot that include: for most who participated, it was a peaceful protest, not a riot; most or all of the participants are just good patriotic Americans who are appalled because the Democrats stole the presidential election from President Trump; Nancy Pelosi was supposed to summon 10,000 law enforcement personnel from the National Guard or someplace else to protect the Capitol, but she didn't; and Ashli Babbit is a martyr (her death was tragic, but I don't consider her to be a hero or a martyr). The Lost Cause theory comes from a curated set of talking points that have circulated since the day after the riot; the source is people in the wing of the G.O.P. that includes the people Liz Cheney denounces. These talking points aren't altogether logically consistent, but they don't have to be; people believe them, and that's what counts. These talking points go nicely with the more rough and tumble theory that the FBI is responsible for the riot, in the sense that earnest people can debate which theory makes more sense when all agree that President Trump was robbed. We didn't lose our democracy in 2021, but we might be headed towards losing it. The people promoting the belief that "there's nothing to see here" with the January 6th riot are in it for the long haul and their power base includes our State of Jefferson. None of these theories are recent for the Lost Cause believers. Peter, do you listen to Bill Meyer?
If you're going to discuss the January 6th riot, then also include that more than 200 FBI agents were on-site at the Capitol building (that's a fact), and they opened doors and lead protestors to various congressional offices. The FBI promoted and facilitated the riot, and that truth will be widely known in the future.
Ed brings up a good point.
Unfortunately, this election may turn out to be simply a never-Trump vs never-Trump election. A strong 3rd party candidate will draw voters from both sides, but likely never enough to actually win the election.
The real question is what is the count for the die-hard Biden voter, and the die-hard Trump voter. Each has a large constituency. Recall the election back for George HW Bush. H. Ross Perot helped Bush lose back then by drawing a huge number of votes.
What's going to happen in 2024 when that middle actually votes?
I POSTED THE ANONYMOUS COMMENT ABOVE BECAUSE
1. It does not contain obscenity or accusations of sex crimes -- facts that are unusual in anonymous posts to this blog by conspiracy believers, and I want to encourage non-obscene posting.
2. It is an example of the genre: Anonymous. No evidence now but surely some will come but believe it now, before there is evidence.
Trump supporters who want comments posted would do better if they signed with their real name (not a fake one) and if they, like this comment, refuse from making obscene, defamatory comments. This prior comment met one of the two criteria.
Peter Sage
I quit listening to KMED while corruptrd by garbsge spreaders like they still featured Barf and Rosemary Harrington, and haven't missed it a bit. I've got real issues around my health to worry about, and don't need my mind cluttered by poisonous lies by the likes if Meyer or Lars Larsen, either of whom lack the wit and charisma of the still dead Rash Limpballs.
Ok so let me see if I'm understanding your logic here:
The FBI, who is in cahoots with Biden as part of the anti-Trump "deep state" as Trump himself and many other Republicans have alleged, decided to orchestrate a riot/insurrection to stop the certification of an election that they helped steal and in which their preferred candidate won? Do I have that right?
Because that's what you are implying.
If you take even half a second to think about it you'll probably realize just how absurdly illogical all of that is. Or maybe you won't, because Trump supporters have a very well developed immunity that wards themselves against inconvenient things like logic and facts.
Well if you look at the 2 main candidates (Biden and Trump) and see who has had the more vociferous response to RFK Jr. for instance, it certainly appears that Trump is more worried about votes being peeled away. Which makes sense. RFK Jr. is a lunatic and lunacy has much stronger appeal to "leans Trump" voters than "leans Biden" ones.
Acquitted by the Senate.
The insurrection act requires the President to ask for disbursement, which now everyone sees the tweets where he did. (but, but, secret doggy whistles etc.)
Ruse or not, once again this won't stick to Trump, and once again haters will be mad because they have hateful blood in their mouths. Yes, we get it you were told to hate the non politician.
Due process for the win again.
Brian1's convoluted logic isn't made any clearer by repeating it.
Bill Meyer is still peddling his schtick? Talk about selling out.
If I believed that nonsense I'd be ashamed to post my name, too.
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