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January 7, 2021 - 11:23am
Few members of America’s political class have covered themselves in glory over the past 24 hours, but some have fared better than others. Yesterday evening, Sen. Tom Cotton, a Trump loyalist from Arkansas and potential 2024 presidential candidate produced this statement:
It’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence. And the senators and representatives who fanned the flames by encouraging the president and leading their supporters to believe that their objections could reverse the election results should withdraw those objections. In any event, the Congress will complete its constitutional responsibilities tonight.”
This is the same Tom Cotton who was widely decried by the America’s liberal elite as a fascist for suggesting that Trump send in the federal troops to break up the Black Lives Matter protests. His infamous op-ed in The New York Times resulted in editor James Bennet’s dismissal, a staff revolt and a frenzy of online denunciations.
Will the ‘paper of record’ now commission a ‘Send the Troops in’ editorial from the same author?
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SubscribeNo. And they will condemn yesterday’s events as ‘violent insurrection’ while continuing to describe the BLM/Antifa rioting, burning and killing as ‘peaceful’.
He’s confusing the good violent Democrat encouraged mob last summer, with the bad violent Republican encouraged mob.
the campus paper known as the NYT will regard Cotton today in the same manner it regarded him then.
People will read into events what they want to read into events. NYT will therefore interpret the attack on the Capitol as validation rather than repudiation. Fox News will do the same. Only in America does chaos serve all masters equally.
“This is the same Tom Cotton who was widely decried by the America’s liberal elite as a fascist for suggesting that Trump send in the federal troops to break up the Black Lives Matter protests.”
That misstates Senator Cotton’s position, at least based on his NY Times op-ed (or anything else that I recall him saying or writing). In his NYT op-ed, he drew a distinction between non-violent protests and rioting/looting. His op-ed doesn’t call for breaking up the former. Quoting from what he wrote:
“Some elites have excused this orgy of violence in the spirit of radical chic, calling it an understandable response to the wrongful death of George Floyd. Those excuses are built on a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters. A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.”
and
“The pace of looting and disorder may fluctuate from night to night, but it’s past time to support local law enforcement with federal authority. Some governors have mobilized the National Guard, yet others refuse, and in some cases the rioters still outnumber the police and Guard combined. In these circumstances, the Insurrection Act authorizes the president to employ the military ‘or any other means’ in ‘cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws.’ “
Whisky Rebellion, the first insurrection under George Washington where people revolted at tax being placed on whisky producers. He marched there with a militia and the protestors all went home, a couple arrested but never prosecuted.
Pilosi is no George Washington, and although the protestors have all gone home she is gearing up for her second American witch hunt, a truly spiteful and destructive force if ever there was one, and she will be baying for blood.
Of course not. What we have seen over the last 48 hours is the result of a failure of democracy by the Republicans, Democrats and the media. They all have played their part in the disgraceful scenes witnessed across the world. The media for pushing a relentless anti Trump, anti America agenda incessantly since his election; the Democrats for refusing to recognise his election and colluding with the media to ignore the concerns of around 50% of the US population and the Republicans for not standing up to Trumps excesses. Democracy dies when people fail to stand against excesses, be that Antifa/BLM violence; media fake news and partisan reporting or a President out of control. Four years of media and political chicanery and a lack of commitment to truth and reconciliation have led the US to were it finds itself today. Biden and Harris along with the media need to show true leadership to bring the country together. I wish them well.