Whitewashing an attempted coup d'état.
"Other than that one incident, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"
The imagined question of Abraham Lincoln's wife is a classic cliche/joke intended to make a simple point. Some incidents define an event, and it is ridiculous to try to change the focus away from it.
This blog received a comment two days ago that is increasingly becoming part of the Trump-oriented GOP's message. It redefines the January 6 attack on the Capitol. A commenter who uses the name "Low Dudgeon" wrote:
The “coup” story took off with the abject lie that was the murder of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick via a fire extinguisher—he died of natural causes—and has steadily diminished ever since.
A group of Trump louts committed trespass and criminal mischief in a shocking and reprehensible location….and to date that’s the full extent of the connected criminal convictions. It’s a soufflé.
What’s most amusing about the conceit that Republicans have gone crazy Right is that in 2021 the elder statesman and lead negotiator for the Democrats is ersatz communist loon Bernie Sanders.
Unless something odd occurs in the next several months, Democrats will soon lose 40 seats in the House and likely Senate control as well. Most Americans are not ingrates nor moralizing pharisees.
The comment calls the Capital insurrection "mischief" and says what was "reprehensible" was thelocation, not its broader purpose of intimidating members of Congress and the Vice President into overturning the presidential election. The comment includes the justification for minimizing a coup d'état: The media is untrustworthy and we didn't really see violence there; that the alternative to Trump is socialist Bernie Sanders so extraordinary efforts are reasonable; that the left moralizes irritating and offensive woke ideas; and that Democrats are unpopular and going to be voted out anyway. Biden's unpopularity means that Trump staying in office, however done, is areflectionof the public will, not an attack on democracy.
Michael Pence made the same points on Fox last night. He said the media is untrustworthy and Biden is a socialist. The January 6 incident was unfortunate, but he is looking forward, and not fixated on the reality that Trump demanded that he discard electoral votes for Biden. Ignore that. In 2022, Pence said, the GOP will retake the House and Senate and in 2024 "we will take our country back." January 6 was an isolated incident and Democrats are being offensive. Pence said,
They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.
It does not take extraordinary investigative reporting nor the revelation of some "smoking gun" on secret tape recordings to describe Trump's efforts as an attempt to reverse an election to stay in power. Trump claims it, proudly. He predicted it before the election. He did it on election night. He publicly urged legislatures and governors to do it in the weeks after the election. He begged his Justice Department to do it. He publicly urged the Supreme Court to do it because they owed him for appointing them. He does it in rallies currently. The simple reality is that the January 6 was not an isolated incident nor an aberration, nor Halloween "mischief." It was citizens doing what Trump urged them to do, to go to the Capitol and "be strong" and to persuade Republican officeholders to overturn the election. It was part of the Trump's plan, a plan acceptable to tens of millions of Americans today, and therefore a plan officeholders cannot openly condemn if they hope to stay in good Republican graces.
Thoughtful people who write comments here, and officeholders who go on television trying to make sense of January 6 have a messaging problem. The reality is that Trump openly advocated overthrowing the election, a coup d'état. The message they are comfortable projecting is that Trump and his supporters are loyal, upstanding Americans.
.They resolve their contradiction with denial and distraction. Don't believe your eyes, don't believe the media, and ignore the repeated plain words of Trump. Nothing much happened on January 6. President Trump didn't stir up anybody and the people at the Capitol were tourists taking selfies. They were rowdy in the way of football fans who get carried away and rush onto the field after a game. It was trivial. It was a souffle'. Besides, look at how terrible Biden is. Socialism! Woke scolders! Critical Race Theory!