I finished viewing yesterday’s second meeting of the January 6th panel earlier today (here’s my reaction to the first). I’ll skip a summary, because my readers should really be watching it themselves, but I will say that the strategy of using the testimony of Republicans, in person and on tape, is effective – if you’re already inclined to agree that the former President was trying to pull a coup.
If you don’t, then it’s more than easy enough to use the RINO approach to rationalize your continued support for the former President. Simply label those testifying as former Republicans and/or traitors to the Republican cause, consign them to the oblivion already containing those lyin’ Democrats, and, there, your feelings are safe from abuse.
The panel is using a very straightforward and almost hammer like approach, putting forward facts, supporting them, and then moving to the next supposition. Again, if you’re not a Trump adherent, it’s very effective and filled with gravitas. But, because it’s testimony and not, say, chunks of undeniable quartz, those who predicate their self-respect on Trump won’t believe it.
The Panel might have used a different approach, although I don’t know what that might be. The problem is that this isn’t an interactive presentation in which the Trumpists can be drawn into a discussion and have their reasoning dissected – and asked how it feels to be a mark.
But I worry that, while this may result in indictments by the DoJ, and maybe even imprisonment, it’ll just leave the Trumpists feeling disenfranchised – rather than more properly taken advantage of by Trump and his cronies.
