Thread by @wanyeburkett

I think it’s difficult for progressives to conceptualize that I feel about the BLM riots basically the same way they feel about January 6, which is to say that anybody who winked in their direction, anybody who offered anything except a full throated and categorical condemnation, anybody who wants to do anything except arrest and prosecute the people who participated, etc., etc., is to my mind completely disqualified from consideration for office. And, further, anybody who did not categorically denounce their colleagues who winked and nodded and excused the riots is similarly disqualified from public office.

I knew the sensible liberal view is supposed to be that Democrats didn’t support the riots, silly, but I think if you look at the standard I’ve laid out here you’ll find that it disqualifies quite a lot of the Democratic Party.

This is just basically the liberal standard for January 6. You’re supposed to say that it was the worst thing that ever happened, qualify that in no way, and call out any member of your party who supports anybody who doesn’t do that.

That’s how I feel about the riots.

To my mind you literally have to say, “the protests at the courthouse outside the George Floyd trial were an attempt to subvert the normal functioning of the criminal justice system via intimidation.” You literally have to say that, like, literally those words and then add, “and anybody who cannot bring themselves to say that is disqualified from public office.”

I am willing to talk about January 6 with anybody who can do that.

I’m not going to have a fake discussion about the sanctity of our governing bodies with anybody who cannot say that about the protest outside the courthouse at the trial of George Floyd.