Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse has a piece in The Atlantic, called “QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within.” It’s pretty good. I agree with most of it.
Except for the title, which implies that the QAnon crowd hasn’t already eaten the Republican Party’s innards and now wears its skin as a suit.
January 6 is a new red-letter day in U.S. history, not just because it was the first time that the Capitol had been ransacked since the War of 1812, but because a subset of the invaders apparently were attempting to disrupt a constitutionally mandated meeting of Congress, kidnap the vice president, and somehow force him to declare Trump the victor in an election he lost. En route, the mob ultimately injured scores of law-enforcement officers. The attack led to the deaths of two officers and four other Americans. But the toll could have been much worse: Police located pipe bombs at the headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic National Committees. Investigators discovered a vehicle fully loaded with weaponry and what prosecutors are calling “homemade napalm bombs.”
The violence that Americans witnessed—and that might recur in the coming days—is not a protest gone awry or the work of “a few bad apples.” It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice. When Trump leaves office, my party faces a choice: We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and perpetuating our best American institutions and traditions, or we can be a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them. We can be the party of Eisenhower, or the party of the conspiracist Alex Jones. We can applaud Officer Goodman or side with the mob he outwitted. We cannot do both.
If and when the House sends its article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate, I will be a juror in his trial, and thus what I can say in advance is limited. But no matter what happens in that trial, the Republican Party faces a separate reckoning. Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon. They can’t. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them. Now is the time to decide what this party is about.
Sasse voted against convicting Trump at his first impeachment trial. Based on this piece, I assume he will vote for conviction at his second, unless defence counsel Rudy Giuliani dazzles the crowd with the devastating proof of election fraud they just never got around to showing the dozens of judges who have already rejected Trump’s election challenges.
If so, good for him. And good for the ten Republicans in the House who voted for impeachment last week.
There are 211 Republicans in the House of Representatives. Less than 5% of the caucus voted to impeach the President who incited a barbarian invasion of the Capitol Building while they were inside.
I’d like to think the Sasse wing of the Republican Party is ascendant, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet on the Arizona GOP being the wave of the future:
The Arizona Republican Party will vote on a measure to censure Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, on Jan. 23, in part because of her support for President-elect Joe Biden and for same-sex marriage.
The proposal, which seeks to “dissolve any connections whatsoever” between McCain and the state GOP, says she “has supported leftist causes such as gay marriage, growth of the administrative state, and others that run counter to Republican values, a Republican form of government, and the U.S. Constitution.”
It also states that McCain has failed to support conservative Republicans like President Donald Trump and has instead backed “globalist policies and candidates” like Biden. “Cindy McCain has condemned President Trump for his criticism of her husband and erroneously placed behaviors over actual presidential results,” the proposal states.
And, of course, there’s this effin' guy:
Lindsey Graham continued railing against an impeachment trial of Donald Trump after he’s out of office, telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo Republicans shouldn’t even consider the idea.
After advising the president against pardoning the rioters, Graham said Joe Biden would be “an incredibly weak figure” if he doesn’t “stand up against the impeachment.”
Graham even attempted to claim that “President Trump is trying to heal the nation.”
[…]
Graham said convicting Trump after he’s out of office would “further divide the country” and said Biden needs to “stand up to the radical left.”
According to a CNN poll, only nineteen percent of Republicans believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected President. David Miscavige’s hold on the Church of Scientology is nothing compared to the grip Donald Trump has on the Republican Party.
Assuming there’s a second impeachment trial at all, how many Republican Senators will vote to convict? Well, eight of them voted to challenge the Electoral College results even after the storming of the Capitol. How much would you bet on a number greater than eight voting to convict?
For the first time many months, I went to church in person yesterday. I had to register my attendance over Eventbrite, sit in the half-capacity worship centre several feet away from everyone else, and keep my mask on except when taking Communion, for which I was given a cleverly pre-packaged “fellowship cup” with a wafer and “wine” sealed in plastic. We had to forego the coffee and snacks usually laid out once the service is over.
And now I’m kicking myself, because if I went to Henry Hildebrandt’s church, I’d know COVID-19 is a hoax and I shouldn’t have to do anything to prevent it from spreading and something something Bill Gates:
…After almost 20 years of little public attention, he popped back up on the public stage with his refusal, amid the pandemic, to end drive-in church services last spring after Ontario adopted emergency orders.
Publicly, he focused on the rights of his congregants to go to their church parking lot — and stay in their cars — to worship. He stressed the use of masks and social distancing at his outdoor services. A church online post in April said: “We are grateful to our federal, provincial, and municipal government leaders for their commitment to public service during this time of crisis and appreciate their responsibility for the well-being of the people they serve.”
Hildebrandt no longer seems grateful to governments. He now claims the entire coronavirus pandemic is a political tool to seize control and stamp out freedoms. Though Hildebrandt argues his resistance is rooted in spiritual duty, it goes well beyond the sphere of religious gatherings.
He started a Twitter account in October, which posts photos of himself with eastern Ontario MPP Randy Hillier, an ally and outspoken critic of COVID-19 public health precautions, and messages of support for Ezra Levant of the far-right outlet Rebel News.
He was to speak at a January rally called The Awakening: World Truth Summit, which was to expose the worldwide conspiracy set to destroy freedoms and enslave humanity and included author David Icke, who believes a hybrid race of aliens and humans is leading the world to slavery.
Hildebrandt has become a fixture at Ontario rallies, including a Toronto protest in support of a restaurant owner whom police charged with opening in defiance of the COVID-19 emergency law.
In a Dec. 28 WhatsApp voice message sent to many of his contacts — a version translated from Low German was reviewed by The Free Press — Hildebrandt calls COVID-19 a “game.”
“Some people would confront me and try to challenge me that this is a serious disease, this is a serious illness, we have to take it serious, we’re just trying to protect people. No, no, no, that’s not true. This is all just a game. This is all just a set-up, this is a plan that is fabricated, there is nothing to this whole thing, it’s all just a made-up plan by governments.”
Later in the eight-minute voice memo, the pastor compares provincial COVID-19 restrictions to Nazi Germany, pointing to those who report violations of public health rules and provincial laws, including limits on indoor gatherings.
He turned up at a COVID troofer march in Toronto this past weekend, being chauffeured past his adoring followers like the leader of the Movementarians:
Ontario reported over 3,400 news cases of COVID-19 on Sunday.
Speaking of demonstrations, as of this writing, the heavily hyped armed pro-Trump marches at American state capitals didn’t really amount to much. In the closest state capital to me, Augusta, it doesn’t look like anyone showed up.
Hey, maybe that means the conspiracy fever is breaking and the QAnon crowd are starting to realize how much damage they’ve done, right? Meh, not necessarily:
Some pro-Trump Mainers on social media continued to question the election results during the week leading to Sunday, but some warned each other not to attend state capitol protests out of fear that they could be “setups” for protesters to be arrested and have their guns confiscated.
On the Facebook group “Maine for Trump,” one member’s call for direct action was met with a tepid response, with one commenter responding, “This is probably the FBI.”
Another Facebook page, “Maine Trump Rallies,” cautioned its followers last week that “many are trying to take away our freedoms and ensnare us in their traps.”
Bravery, thy name is Alexei Navalny:
Russian opposition leader and Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been detained by police after returning to Moscow five months after being poisoned by a nerve agent.
Footage showed Mr Navalny being met by police officers at passport control minutes after landing in the Russian capital.
A few moments before his arrest, Navalny answered questions in front of a backdrop showing the red towers of the Kremlin and apologised to passengers for the inconvenience of the diverted flight.
“This is the best day of the last five months,” Mr Navalny said. “I’m not afraid, because I know I’m right. I’m not afraid of anything.”
[…]
…On January 12, the state penitentiary service announced it had placed the Kremlin foe on a wanted list after supposedly breaking parole, and would look to arrest him on arrival. Another state agency, the investigative committee, made a parallel claim to Mr Navalny’s freedom, alleging he was guilty of embezzlement from funds donated to his anti-corruption foundation.
The legal justifications push the bounds of credibility. But Mr Navalny’s own lawyers concede either one of the claims could result in multiyear prison sentences from Russia’s infamous court system.
As such, immediate future for the opposition politician looks reasonably bleak. Supporters insist that even in the now likely event that he is imprisoned, he will be able to plot a new future from his cell in the same way as Nelson Mandela.
Navalny’s arrest was caught on video:
“Real 8-D chess here by Putin turning Navalny into the most admired man in the world overnight,” tweets Allahpundit. I agree that this wouldn’t make any sense if Putin wanted to be loved.
It makes perfect sense if Putin wanted to feared.