Speaker Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) seem to be having a bit of a disagreement:
The Senate unanimously approved a measure Thursday to display an existing plaque honoring the officers who protected the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.
Congress passed a law in March 2022 mandating the plaque, but years later it has yet to be installed. Speaker Mike Johnson has argued the project is “not implementable,” and the Justice Department has maintained in litigation that an existing plaque does not comply with the law because it lists the departments who responded, not the individual officers.
The measure on Thursday, led by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), sought to address the long-running political squabble.
“Squabble”? No, this is Trump waging war on the police who stopped his insurrectionists from illegally interfering with the vote-counting process, and this is Speaker Johnson, one of the weakest Speakers in the history of the House, and probably weakest members of the House ever, zealously doing the bidding of the man who handed him the honor of the Speakership. It’s been reported that the government website devoted to the insurrection has been whitewashed to make it appear the police instigated the incident, and the plaque would be discordant with this fanciful version of reality.
But, with this measure passed, Thune and the balance of the Senate has refused to erase reality.
This is emblematic of the choice that has been coming slowly into focus for every right-winger since the insurrection: did President Trump actually win the 2020 election, as he claims, or does he simply lie about it every time he opens his mouth – and, by implication, about just about everything else?
AND … whether each Republican sees the massive mendacity of many lead GOP officials, including the Mendacity Machine himself, as reason to leave the right, or is their faux-grasp[1] on power so important to their egos that truth and honesty is disregarded by them, as we’ve already seen with the current Cabinet members?
That is, the Republicans are now, individually, faced with a choice: Erase the historical perceptions of reality in their insane dash for absolute power that will, I think, result in a Republican Party-level internecine war between people with surnames such as Vance (R), Johnson (R-LA), Johnson (Ron, R-WI), Fuentes, Paxton (R-TX), Emmer (R-MN), Vought (Dir of CFPB), two dozen pastors, three dozen “prophets,” and so many others as soon as Trump disappears from the scene. Folks, I have a bad feeling that the far-right, jealous fourth-raters all, are about to literally tear themselves apart in a spate of automatic weapons and blood, and I’m not speaking metaphorically. As observed by historians and structural demographers such as Turchin, countries lacking a generally recognized external existential threat can fall victim to internal conflict; I would add … when the arrogance of the rivals is well out of alignment with reality.[2] Generally, this continues until the bulgy-eyed types are all dead and everyone else is so horrified that compromise becomes a good word, again. Let’s hope the speedy demon of technology enables us to figure this out in weeks and not decades.
Keep your heads down, folks, and keep an eye on the far-left as well; they have a history of trying to sail in as an ally of the center when the right collapses. To paraphrase Franklin, we only get to be a democracy so long as we work to keep it that way.
Wild prediction of the day: Once Trump realizes he’s not in control, he’ll commit suicide. Within six months, I’d say.
1 Faux-grasp is the phrase I use because, like any tin-pot dictator, Trump doesn’t share power.
2 In our case, to one side I’d state that No, God doesn’t take sides, the Divine may not even exist, and to the other, No, your favored latest academic fad in governance does not entitle you to act the part of autocrats.
