During today’s impeachment hearing, many House Republicans called for national unity. A good number of those Republicans are the same ones who fanned Trump’s false claim that the presidential election was stolen from him … that Joe Biden was not the lawfully elected next president of the United States.
How can we come together as a nation when nearly 70% of Republicans believe the “Big Lie?” How can we move on with the business of the country when a large number of Republican representatives and a handful of senate Republicans are still peddling the “Big Lie?” How can we restore faith in our democracy, and the Constitution, when 197 out of 207 Republican House members refused to honor their oath and vote for Trump’s impeachment?
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, chair of the House Rules Committee, said today during his closing remarks, “We will never have unity without truth and also without accountability.” He chided his Republican colleagues for their hypocritical pleas for unity.
“Some of my Republican friends have been trying to lecture us about unity here today — unity after they voted to overturn a free and fair election in the United States of America, but also preaching unity and not acknowledging that for four years many of them gave oxygen to Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories,” McGovern said.
The fact is that a majority of Republican voters firmly … and fervently … believe the election was rigged. They accept the false notion that Trump votes were not counted or somehow changed to Biden votes. They believe scores of dead people voted for Biden. Many are pledging to never accept or acknowledge Joe Biden as their duly elected president.
It will be hard to dissuade these Trump voters of the many conspiracy theories fed them by Trump and his willing accomplices … Congressional Republicans and right-wing media outlets. Many believe so strongly in the “Big Lie” that they traveled miles to be part of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week, some claiming they were the true patriots willing to die for their country and the Constitution.
A necessary first step in bringing about national unity is for us all to be on the same page when it comes to the essential truth about the 2020 election.
The 2020 presidential election was “the most secure in American history.” This assessment was put out in a joint statement by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Those Republican senators (I’m looking at you Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley) and House Republicans (yes, you Jim Jordon and Mo Brooks) need to do the right thing and speak the truth to those misguided and misinformed Republican voters. Fox News has to do some soul searching and try to walk back some of its loyal viewers from the ledge. They all have to own up to their role in spreading the “Big Lie” which led directly to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
I know, I know, keep dreaming!
The said truth is that even if this were in the realm of possibility, it might not be enough to get through to those ardent Trump loyalists who would no doubt brand any Republican who dares tell the truth, and attack the “Big Lie,” as a traitor or a RINO.
Yet, do you see any other way?
Photo | AP/J.Scott Applewhite
They are a cult. Much like the cult of Jim Jones or those in Waco. They will refuse to hear the truth as Der Leader won’t allow them to. Sheeple.
The Middle Class is relatively a lot poorer than it used to be; and non-Hispanic Whites are quickly becoming a minority. I believe those two factors are at the heart of the whole matter. Faced with those things, with both anger and fear, logic doesn’t matter. People will believe whatever reinforces their rationalizations.
I see two solutions:
The Poor and the Middle Class get richer–which of course means the Rich will have to get poorer.
Time. When people finally realize that America wasn’t destroyed under eight years of a Black president, and see that it’s not destroyed under four or eight years of a Black/Asian vice president, I believe things will improve. But it will take time.
I don’t see how an armed assault on the Capital signals unity.