It is a sad indictment of our current political reality that news that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will come out against a 1/6 Commission is treated as unsurprising. It is a stance born from a fear of where this commission’s findings will likely lead – a wholesale indictment of a cult to which McConnell and his compatriots in the House and Senate have pledged servile fealty.
Let’s boil this down to one simple question, and let me paraphrase that famous line from the film A Few Good Men. Can the Republican Party handle the truth? And what is this truth? It’s not complicated. Joe Biden won the presidential election in 2020. It wasn’t close. It was a fair and free election. But let’s not kid ourselves, many Republicans have been allergic to the truth for a long time – on climate change, on guns, on racial justice, on the pandemic, on a whole host of issues.
These people go every night to the Ayn Rand Disneyland of Fox News. They bathe in the conspiracy-theory swamp of Facebook. They pick fights with straw men. But the rest of the country, the rest of the world, has no choice but to live in reality.
I want to live in a democratic republic guided by the rule of law. And the truth. I want a government that tackles our big challenges and doesn’t play footsie with white supremacists. I can handle the truth. I want my country to handle the truth – even, and especially, when it’s ugly. We have no choice but to do that if we want to continue to thrive as a nation. I think some Republicans are starting to realize that. We will see how many oppose the leadership on this. This could split the party. Just look at the fate of Liz Cheney, for example. So be it. I’m more worried about splitting apart the country.
Faced with Republican complicity and cowardice, those who still want to live in reality have no choice but to push forward. Democrats control both houses of Congress and can hold high-profile Congressional hearings, even if a commission isn’t created. They can follow the evidence and create a record for history. The Republicans will undoubtedly frame these as partisan witch hunts. But once there are public hearings and deep investigations there is no telling what will come out.
Related Off-site Links:
U.S. House Passes Bill to Investigate Capitol Insurrection, But Its Fate in the Senate Is Unclear – Claudia Grisales and Barbara Sprunt (NPR News, May 19, 2021).
Mitch McConnell Turns Senate Republicans Against January 6 Commission – Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett (Politico, May 19, 2021).
Mitch McConnell Is Still Hiding From the Capitol Mob – Jim Newell (Slate, May 19, 2021).
UPDATES: “Despicable”: McConnell Begs GOP Senators to Vote Against January 6 Commission as “Personal Favor” – John Wight (AlterNet, May 27, 2021).
Most Americans Think the GOP Is Working Against Democracy and Want January 6 Commission, Polls Find – Andrew Solender (Forbes, May 27, 2021).
Senate Republicans Block a Plan for An Independent Commission on January 6 Capitol Riot – Brian Naylor (NPR News, May 28, 2021).
Senate Republicans Block January 6 Commission With First Filibuster of Biden Presidency – Axios (May 28, 2021).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Dan Rather on America’s “Moment of Reckoning”
• Two Conservative Voices of Integrity
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – May 5, 2021
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Heather Cox Richardson on Combating the Republican Party’s “Rigging of the System”
• Refuting Surface Level Comparisons Between the Insurrection at the Capitol and Black Lives Matter Protests
• David Remnick: Quote of the Day – February 13, 2021
• Michael Harriot: Quote of the Day – January 6, 2021
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
Image: Kristen Solberg.
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