Josh Marshall highlights an op-ed from the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In it, the author says about January 6th: "We all saw it." Here's the nut graph:
This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a years long campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.
We have taken it as an article of faith that Trumpists are immune to facts and that we live in a post-factual world where nothing really matters. He then invokes Godwin's Law:
As for those who equate Trump and Joe Biden, that’s false equivalency. Biden has done nothing remotely close to the egregious, anti-American acts of Trump. We can debate the success and mindset of our current president, as we have about most presidents in our lifetimes, but Biden was never a threat to our democracy. Trump is. He is unique among all American presidents for his efforts to keep power at any cost.
Personally, I find it hard to understand how Americans who take pride in our system of government support Trump. All those soldiers who died in World War II were fighting against the kind of regime Trump wants to create on our soil. How do they not see it?
The March 25 edition of the New Yorker magazine offers some insight. It includes a detailed review of a new book about Adolf Hitler, focused on the year 1932. It’s called “Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power” and is by historian Timothy W. Ryback. It explains how German leaders – including some in the media -- thought they could use Hitler as a means to get power for themselves and were willing to look past his obvious deficiencies to get where they wanted. In tolerating and using Hitler as a means to an end, they helped create the monstrous dictator responsible for millions of deaths.
How are those German leaders different from people in Congress saying the election was stolen or that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection aimed at destroying our government? They know the truth, but they deny it. They see Trump as a means to an end – power for themselves and their “team” – even if it means repeatedly telling lies.
I guess the hopeful side of me thinks that eventually the memory of January 6th will crowd out the nonsensical memories of things being great under Trump. Trump was president four years ago, when we were huddled in our homes hoping not to die. Trump was president when the George Floyd protests rocked this country. His presidency was a shitshow.
However, while the editorial does make the case of "We all saw it" I think we have to acknowledge that 35% of Americans think it was fine. Which...OK. Trump can't win with 35%. It's really those 10-15% who think it was "bad" but are willing to wave it away in false equivalencies about Biden something something argle bargle.
The simple truth is that in a sane world, a world based on objective facts, that editorial wouldn't be necessary.
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