You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.
—Shakespeare, Henry V, Act II, Scene 2
You have to admire them for their speed. Not 48 hours after elements of their political base ransacked the Capitol in what now appears to have been at least in part a very well-organized lynch mob, they've gotten their followers ginned up about the fact that large private American corporations at long last have come to the realization that being vehicles for armed sedition against the United States is bad for business. They've explained that they are the real victims of their own looting and pillaging. And, since both terrified congressional staffers and the guys who erected a damn gallows on the National Mall have been equally traumatized by the events of last week, it's time for us to move on, in unity, lest the tender fee-fees of the MAGA Ostrogoths once again drive them to insurrection.
And this is not coming from the criminals themselves, or from their lawyers, who could be expected to promote such unmitigated horseshit. It's coming from the elected leadership of the Republican Party in Congress, people who work in the very building that was so profaned on January 6. From The Hill:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday released a statement calling for unity and a smooth transition of power.
“Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more. I have reached out to President-elect [Joe] Biden today and plan to speak to him about how we must work together to lower the temperature and unite the country to solve America’s challenges,” he said. “The coronavirus is still coursing through our communities, businesses and workers are facing unprecedented stress, and children are falling behind. Threats from adversaries such as Russia, China, and Iran are increasing. As leaders, we must call on our better angels and refocus our efforts on working directly for the American people. United we can deliver the peace, strength, and prosperity our country needs. Divided, we will fail.”
The electric Twitter machine came alive with Republican calls for "unity" in the face of the terrorism their own actions inspired, and many of those calls were approximately as heartfelt as a ransom call. This, from Ted Cruz, palace eunuch at Camp Runamuck, is fairly typical.
Really sad. At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing. This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.
And here, from Rep. Kevin Brady, the ranking Republican member of the House Ways and Means Committee, is quite clear that the opposition to removing this criminal president* has behind it the threat of further mob action.
Those calling for impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment in response to President Trump’s rhetoric this week are themselves engaging in intemperate and inflammatory language and calling for action that is equally irresponsible and could well incite further violence…They are placing a desire for vengeance above the best interests of the country. President-elect Joe Biden is right to reject calls to go down this dangerous path which will only further divide the country.
The gall. The sheer, unmitigated, steel-belted, gold-plated gall it takes for these people to make this argument, not a week after five people died in the worst battle in the U.S. Capitol since the Royal Marines blew town, can only be attributed to politicians who are confident that the forces of unreason and violence have their backs. And Republican conservatives have been playing footsie with those forces for decades.
In the West, you had congresscritters who spoke to armed militia groups, and far too many allegedly respectable conservatives lined up behind gun-totin’ deadbeat Cliven Bundy and his deadbeat offspring. In the South, Republican politicians genuflected before the Council of Conservative Citizens, the modern manifestation of the White Citizens Councils, which were themselves the respectable front organizations for the domestic terrorism of the Klan. Consider the sheepshanks into which Republican politicians have tied themselves defending the Confederate battle flag, the one that was paraded around the Capitol last week, and opposing the efforts to remove memorials to that previous exercise in violent sedition. This was all to keep the angry base sufficiently mollified to be used to political advantage. They grabbed the wolf by the ears and now they can't let go. All the president* did was to remove the controls and release the whirlwind. If these people are afraid for their political lives, good. They should be.
So, no, I’m not listening to calls for “unity” from these people, and I’m hoping that Democratic politicians do not give in to this subtle coercion. (“Nice Congress you have here. Be a shame if anything happened to it. Again.”) I am looking for investigations, arrests, trials, and buses on their way to various federal facilities. Were I in Congress, there are a number of people I would vote to expel. And I want televised hearings with no executive sessions. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror of these most remarkable events. We need to accept what we see.
Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
