Not saying this to be mean, but this is one of the things where this is so manifestly obvious to me I have to stop and think about how to explain it.
Let me see how to put this.
Okay, I've got it.
They're going to start shooting.
Let me see how to put this.
Okay, I've got it.
They're going to start shooting.
Today's Republicans embody the ethos of "there are some people the law binds but does not protect, and some people it protects but does not bind."
They are willing to pretend to believe in the law only to the extent that it is useful.
They are willing to pretend to believe in the law only to the extent that it is useful.
At the point at which it's clear that even being elected to the highest offices of the legislative branch does not make them above the law... they will show no fealty to it.
Their armed followers have been primed for decades, generations now, to expect a totalitarian takeover.
Their armed followers have been primed for decades, generations now, to expect a totalitarian takeover.
At the point at which Republican representatives, who in their narrative are heroically trying to expose a plot to overthrow a president behind closed doors, are being handcuffed and arrested or expelled from the chamber or whatever... that's the cue so many have waited for.
Trump gets a perfect excuse to denounce the entire House and anything it does as illegitimate, to declare a state of national emergency, to declare open season on Democratic lawmakers.
Even if it doesn't immediately escalate to bloodshed, it ratchets up the rhetoric and the action. It turns up the heat. To the Republicans it will mean that anything goes, no holds barred, all bets are off.
Mitch McConnell would look at it and go, "Okay. No more playing nice."
Mitch McConnell would look at it and go, "Okay. No more playing nice."
But as bad as this sounds?
NOT doing anything, as I said, is worse.
We've been through this before, when the temperature was a lot lower and the stakes less obvious: the Democrats refusing to do anything now "because what if we need to do something later?" leads us... here.
NOT doing anything, as I said, is worse.
We've been through this before, when the temperature was a lot lower and the stakes less obvious: the Democrats refusing to do anything now "because what if we need to do something later?" leads us... here.
If we fight, then we're going to be in a fight and we might lose it.
If we don't, we lose anyway.
I don't know that going as far as arresting them is the best thing to do, but there must be consequences or they'll keep doing it.
If we don't, we lose anyway.
I don't know that going as far as arresting them is the best thing to do, but there must be consequences or they'll keep doing it.
