- Several Republicans like Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz said it is important to entertain dangerous conspiracy theories about the election so that Trump supporters “feel heard”.
- Trump supporters were heard on November 3 when they voted.
- Just because you didn’t get what you wanted, it doesn’t mean you weren’t heard.
- The GOP’s acceptance of this pathetic policy as therapy, indulging in voters’ personal “truths” instead of telling them the real truth, led to the Capitol insurrection on Wednesday.
- Mitt Romney is right. The way to show respect for Trump voters is to tell the truth: he lost.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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Among the things that make me want to punch the wall this week are the insincere statements by Republican lawmakers who said they objected to the victory of Joe Biden’s electoral college because President Trump’s supporters deserve the opportunity to “be heard”.
“Millions of voters concerned about electoral integrity deserve to be heard,” said Josh Hawley, the most false member of the Senate, announcing why he would play on the president’s incendiary lie that the election had been stolen from him and would force a congressional vote on the rejection of the election results that Joe Biden won by seven million votes.
Hawley also characterized this feat as his only opportunity to be heard.
“I have no legitimacy to file lawsuits and I am no longer a prosecutor”, he told reporters on January 1. “I have no legitimacy to conduct investigations. In this case, January 6, this is the only opportunity I have to be heard. And to speak on behalf of my constituents.”
This is wrong. Like all the other supporters of the president, Hawley had the prior opportunity to be heard, on November 3, when he voted. Their votes were counted and the president lost. Just because you didn’t get what you wanted, it doesn’t mean you weren’t heard.
Senator Ted Cruz, who struggled to oppose the electoral count after Hawley announced his own objection, warned Democrats in a Senate speech on Wednesday – before the Capitol was taken over by “unheard” protesters – that they needed consider the experiences of the election – Americans who believe in stealing instead of erasing its truth.
“I would recommend to both sides perhaps a little less certainty and a little more recognition that we are meeting at a time when democracy is in crisis,” he said, like a murderer who kills his parents and demands sympathy for being orphan. “Recent polls show that 39% of Americans believe that the election that just took place ‘was rigged’. You may not agree with this assessment. But even so, it is a reality for almost half of the country. “
No, it’s not a goddamn reality. It is a lie, and it is a lie that people believe because politicians like Cruz have been making irresponsible statements for months and defending conspiracy theories. Just because a group of people bought these lies, it doesn’t make them a reality.
The acceptance of relativism and politics as therapy by the right is pathetic. What happened to “the facts don’t care about your feelings”?
As Senator Mitt Romney later noted – after a pause of hours due to the president’s diehard fans looting the Capitol in a riot that led to five deaths – a Congressional commission to investigate “fraud” as Cruz’s proposal would never go to do electoral conspirators feel “heard” anyway. The real way to show respect to them, said Romney, would be to tell the truth: Trump lost. (Or, as Senator Pat Toomey put it more succinctly: “A commission? Really?”)
On the House side, Republicans were angry when Congressman Conor Lamb pointed out that they had been involved in a dishonest feat that led to a woman being shot dead in the Capitol building. Republican members claimed to be offended, and Congressman Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, almost came into conflict with Texas Democrat (and former NFL linebacker) Colin Allred.
But Lamb was right. Republicans who have indulged in electoral conspiracies have blood on their hands and, if they want to atone, they should start by telling their voters the truth, rather than treating their lies as “a reality”.
I’m not holding my breath.