The right response to Republicans opposing the 1/6 commission is that they're doing this because they're implicated in the crime. Their excuses are entirely unmoored from anything resembling good faith arguments. Here's a rundown of the 5 most absurd ones:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans claim the Jan 6 commission is "partisan."

That's nonsense on its face. But what they really mean is that if the commission doesn't give them absolute veto power over investigative direction, they won't permit for it to be called bipartisan:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans claim the timing of the commission is all wrong.

That's weird. It's been nearly five months since Jan 6. And the commission would submit its report before the midterms get going in earnest.

There is no timing that Republicans would accept:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans claim the commission must also investigate alleged widespread leftist violence.

They've spent months trying to both-sides Jan 6.

Their real goal: To obscure the truth about right wing radicalization and their own active fomenting of it:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans claim existing committees preclude the need for a Jan 6 commission.

What Republicans really want is for the scope to remain focused only on security -- and not on the causes leading up to the insurrection. Because that would implicate *them*:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Outrage is the wrong response. That implies Republicans can be shamed into adhering to latent principles.

Instead, just note that they're implicated in a major crime against democracy, and they're covering it up.

As @joshtpm says, outrage is for chumps:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

21 May
Memo to Joe Manchin: McConnell is telling Republicans to oppose the bipartisan 1/6 commission on grounds that it will hurt them in 2022. One party is abandoning democracy. Either Dems will defend it on a partisan basis or it won't happen at all. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
McConnell privately told Republicans to oppose the commission because it's too partisan.

For McConnell, nothing will count as a bipartisan commission unless it is badly hamstrung from focusing on the role of Trump and Republicans in inciting the attack:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Manchin still hopes 10 GOP senators will support the 1/6 commission.

But what if they don't?

The conclusion will be inescapable:

There can be no accounting into 1/6 that's both bipartisan and also a full and true accounting.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… Image
Read 5 tweets
19 May
Mark McCloskey is running for Senate in Missouri, and his chief selling point is that he brandished a gun at racial justice protesters. This again shows how essential a fantasy fiction version of the leftist threat has become to GOP identity. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Candidates often speak of a transformative experience that awakened their desire to serve the public.

McCloskey's version?

“God came knocking on my door disguised as an angry mob. It really woke me up."

That's quite a moment of divine inspiration!

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The key ingredient is the complete unshackling of oneself from any empirical constraints in depicting the leftist threat.

The protests inspired this with peculiar force, as @lionel_trolling notes. But there's also a strain of religious fanaticism to it:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
13 May
Republicans are committing a monstrous crime against democracy. A massive campaign is underway to cover their tracks:

* Pretending they never fed the big lie

* Epic gaslighting re 1/6

* Mass voter suppression in name of 'election integrity"

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
A striking fact:

Lawmakers in *33 states* have justified voting restrictions with the bogus nonsense that voter "confidence" must be restored.

Of course, Trump and Republicans destroyed that confidence themselves.

(Via a great @MaggieAstor report)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@MaggieAstor We need to appreciate how comprehensive the GOP deception campaign truly is.

It includes Republicans piously claiming they just want to restore "confidence" in elections, to obscure their radicalization.

It also includes an Orwellian rewriting of 1/6:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
10 May
Stop saying Republicans are "cowards" who "fear Trump." This lets them off the hook in a very fundamental way. They *want* a future in which they treat hated election outcomes as subject to invalidation. They are building this future right now. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
One ally of Liz Cheney told @sbg1 that she is a "living reproach to all these cowards."

This got lots of buzz. But it's a weak frame. It implies Rs would prefer on principle to defend democracy and would do so if only they didn't fear the consequences:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@sbg1 Anyone still claiming the problem is GOP "cowardice" should watch Rep Jim Banks on Fox.

He's the head of the Republican Study Committee, an influential position.

It's impossible to read his loathsome remarks in such an innocent way.

(h/t @atrupar)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
2 May
1) My defense of liberalism and criticism of where we're falling short has generated a lot of thoughtful and interesting responses -- thanks for that! -- so I thought I'd do a thread with a bunch of further reading on this topic.
2) @HelenaRosenblat's lost history of liberalism captures a lot of the neglected ways in which liberals sought to develop a conception of the common good, which liberalism is constantly (and wrongly) criticized for lacking:

amazon.com/Lost-History-L…
@HelenaRosenblat 3) The great Stephen Holmes' "Anatomy of Antiliberalism" is a really useful cataloging of the criticisms thrown at liberalism over the centuries, and why they falter under scrutiny. Many critiques you hear today have their roots in these old arguments:

amazon.com/Anatomy-Antili…
Read 10 tweets
27 Apr
Two facts about this moment:

1) New Census data shows we're headed for long term demographic decline

2) Enormous numbers are begging for entry into this country, and we go to great lengths to turn them away.

Utter madness. Time to change this debate:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
I talked to demographer Bill Frey. Key points:

“These new Census numbers should reset the debate about what immigration means for this country."

“Modest increases in the birth rate, which is the most we can expect, won’t solve the demographic problem."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Time to retire the wretched phrase "economic migrant."

Severe material deprivation is not somehow a "bad" reason to try to migrate. We need to lean harder into being part of actual regional solutions, for our own good.

cc @Noahpinion:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets

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