(imm)Unity
You might recall, our last Plague Trip put us in Colorado in the days leading up to the election, when the televisions are full of political ads. One of the most frequent ads on Denver television was from this woman. I took this picture of the TV during one of her ads because she struck me as a particularly comical kind of absurd politician for the modern era, a sort of chesty Sarah Palin wannabe who couldn't quite manage Palin's eloquence or intelligence. (And yes, I know what I'm saying there.) She's an obsessed gun nut, a Trump cultist, and a loud follower of that Q conspiracy theory.
In other words, she's the perfect representative for today's Republican Party.
She wound up winning the race for Colorado's 3rd U.S. Congressional District, and she's spent all her time since throwing fits about not being allowed to carry a loaded gun into the Capitol. Last Wednesday while taking cover with fellow House members during the attempted coup, she was tweeting out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's location to any insurgent who might want to swing by with a noose. During today's hearings about the Impeachment that resulted from that coup -- a few hours after throwing a fit at the Capitol Police for making her pass through a metal detector and refusing to show what was in her purse after she set it off -- she gave a loud and ironically combative speech demanding reconciliation and unity.
That seems to be the line a lot of Republicans want to take on this whole coup thing. They don't want to talk abut the coup itself, and they often try to deflect discussion with talk of how Black people burned down 7-11s last summer. (Of course, they ignore the fundamental differences in scale between burning down a random convenience store and storming the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to murder elected leaders and topple democracy.) After having spent the last two months screaming lies about a so-called stolen election and demonizing their opponents as vile conspirators, their notion -- now that they've been outed as the conspirators -- is that it's time to tone down the rhetoric. Time to put the past behind us and come together in unity for a better tomorrow.
Never mind good old Lauren Boebert up there, who would have happily led Nancy Peolsi to the gallows. Never mind the talk just now emerging that some other members members of Congress conspired with the insurgents to make the coup happen. We're supposed to let all that go. We're supposed to just drop it all and play nice.
I've seen several Republican luminaries quote Lincoln as they plea for some kind of mythical "unity." Republican news personality Hugh Hewitt quoted Lincoln's First Inaugural Address on Twitter, saying, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." He probably forgot the response to Lincoln's plea was an attack on Fort Sumter and four years of Civil War. On the House floor today, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise argued against impeachment with the famous line from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address about acting "with malice toward none, with charity for all." He neglected to mention the response Lincoln got was a gunshot to the head.
I know a lot of people in life who firmly believe the way past any problem is to ignore it. Have a disagreement with family? Keep it quiet. Have some sort of medical problem? Ignore it. If you don't believe it's there, it can't hurt you. Do whatever it takes to keep the peace and make it go away. I don't subscribe to that. We are well past the point where this is simple disagreement. The nation has cancer, and it's time we cut it out. We need to look this right in the eye and face it for what it it is. Forget fake charity for those who only want to escape the consequences of inciting insurgency and war. Forget false unity with those who'd be happy to put bullets in our heads. I don't want reconciliation with people who refuse to denounce a coup. They wanted a fight. It's time we stand up and give it to them.
(imm)Unity
You might recall, our last Plague Trip put us in Colorado in the days leading up to the election, when the televisions are full of political ads. One of the most frequent ads on Denver television was from this woman. I took this picture of the TV during one of her ads because she struck me as a particularly comical kind of absurd politician for the modern era, a sort of chesty Sarah Palin wannabe who couldn't quite manage Palin's eloquence or intelligence. (And yes, I know what I'm saying there.) She's an obsessed gun nut, a Trump cultist, and a loud follower of that Q conspiracy theory.
In other words, she's the perfect representative for today's Republican Party.
She wound up winning the race for Colorado's 3rd U.S. Congressional District, and she's spent all her time since throwing fits about not being allowed to carry a loaded gun into the Capitol. Last Wednesday while taking cover with fellow House members during the attempted coup, she was tweeting out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's location to any insurgent who might want to swing by with a noose. During today's hearings about the Impeachment that resulted from that coup -- a few hours after throwing a fit at the Capitol Police for making her pass through a metal detector and refusing to show what was in her purse after she set it off -- she gave a loud and ironically combative speech demanding reconciliation and unity.
That seems to be the line a lot of Republicans want to take on this whole coup thing. They don't want to talk abut the coup itself, and they often try to deflect discussion with talk of how Black people burned down 7-11s last summer. (Of course, they ignore the fundamental differences in scale between burning down a random convenience store and storming the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to murder elected leaders and topple democracy.) After having spent the last two months screaming lies about a so-called stolen election and demonizing their opponents as vile conspirators, their notion -- now that they've been outed as the conspirators -- is that it's time to tone down the rhetoric. Time to put the past behind us and come together in unity for a better tomorrow.
Never mind good old Lauren Boebert up there, who would have happily led Nancy Peolsi to the gallows. Never mind the talk just now emerging that some other members members of Congress conspired with the insurgents to make the coup happen. We're supposed to let all that go. We're supposed to just drop it all and play nice.
I've seen several Republican luminaries quote Lincoln as they plea for some kind of mythical "unity." Republican news personality Hugh Hewitt quoted Lincoln's First Inaugural Address on Twitter, saying, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." He probably forgot the response to Lincoln's plea was an attack on Fort Sumter and four years of Civil War. On the House floor today, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise argued against impeachment with the famous line from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address about acting "with malice toward none, with charity for all." He neglected to mention the response Lincoln got was a gunshot to the head.
I know a lot of people in life who firmly believe the way past any problem is to ignore it. Have a disagreement with family? Keep it quiet. Have some sort of medical problem? Ignore it. If you don't believe it's there, it can't hurt you. Do whatever it takes to keep the peace and make it go away. I don't subscribe to that. We are well past the point where this is simple disagreement. The nation has cancer, and it's time we cut it out. We need to look this right in the eye and face it for what it it is. Forget fake charity for those who only want to escape the consequences of inciting insurgency and war. Forget false unity with those who'd be happy to put bullets in our heads. I don't want reconciliation with people who refuse to denounce a coup. They wanted a fight. It's time we stand up and give it to them.