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.
But this is different. The Lost Cause story is going mainstream with "normal" Republicans. Sensible Republican citizens -- public-spirited people I would trust to prepare my tax returns, to check my skin for cancer, to operate a business I would patronize, to sit on nonprofit boards of directors -- are hearing the January 6 Lost Cause story, and getting comfortable with it. Trump has stuck to his story, lambasting grand juries, prosecutors and judges for prosecuting crimes Trump committed openly and proudly because he doesn't acknowledge that they are crimes. Trump claims legal immunity and political victimhood.
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.
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.
I am reading Liz Cheney's book. It is factual and frightening! She is a true ethical and principled Republican leader. It is pathetic how she is demonized by the rabid followers of the man behind the attempted coup of January 6.
It’s heartbreaking