Before you watch RNC, don’t forget what GOP is condoning | Opinion
Before reading beyond this sentence or watching the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump is expected to officially become the GOP standard bearer for the third consecutive time, pull up video from Jan. 6, 2021. Marinate in it for a little while.
Or the documentary “The Sixth.”
Or watch the short New Yorker video during which an insurrectionist told a Capitol police officer: “We are listening to Trump, your boss.” And another said this about the media: “Start making a list. Put all those names down, and we start hunting them down one by one. Hang ‘em!”
And another yelled this in the Senate chambers: “Jesus Christ, we invoke your name,” which was followed by a prayer among a small group of men. They thought they were doing the Lord’s work on Jan. 6.
The Lord wasn’t leading them, though it’s possible Trump has become their Lord. A growing number of Republicans change their view of morality based on whatever Trump does, excusing crimes he commits that they wouldn’t accept from their city council members.
It was Trump, a man who was reportedly proud that an estimated 10,000 followers stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. He seemed not to care that they had constructed a makeshift guillotine and talked about hanging then-Vice President Mike Pence.
More than 140 police officers were injured and seven people killed during or after the insurrection attempt. Trump had urged his crowd to march to the Capitol to convince Pence to do something he had no constitutional authority to do.
“If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election,” Trump lied to the crowd.
Then, he did what bully-cowards often do: He let others do his dirty work. He found a safe space and watched the events unfold — in front of a television set.
Just think about what’s about to happen and what that says about our democracy. This is the man the Republican Party is nominating to lead the country only four years after he inspired a violent insurrection attempt. This is the man the GOP is nominating after they preached patriotism and the importance of putting country above party.
During next week’s convention in Milwaukee, Republican officials from across the country will hug the flag rhetorically and figuratively, and maybe literally, acting as though they hold that principle dear. They will want you to forget they made this the likely outcome of the recent Republican primaries the moment they refused to vote in favor of removing Trump from office during his second impeachment hearing. They want you to forget that the violence of Jan. 6 was part of a larger-coordinated plan to upend our democracy from its roots.
Since the first debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, the media and political watchers have been focused on Biden’s health, which is a legitimate concern. (Biden should step aside or take a full cognition test and release the results, as should Trump.) That’s where Republicans want the conversation to remain.
Democrats hope to eventually turn the table back to policies, such as abortion, health care access, climate change and other vitally important issues. But none is more important than democracy itself.
Imagine the message the GOP will be sending at the RNC by renominating Trump — and the message the U.S. will be sending to the rest of the world if Trump is reelected in November and sworn in next January. It would say that democracy is a joke, not worth saving — that if the United States of America re-empowers insurrectionists instead of jailing them, why shouldn’t they do the same.
On Jan. 6, 2021, our country faced a full-frontal attack on its legitimacy. The RNC is just the next phase.
This story was originally published July 14, 2024 at 6:00 AM.