There’s a conservative columnist at the New York Times named Ross Douthat. He’s trying to convince someone that what happened on January 6th, 2021 was a nothing burger, blown out of all proportion by reactionary liberals who just hate Trump. He suggested it’s anti-democratic to use the 14th Amendment to prevent a known traitor from returning to power because what Trump did was different from what the Confederacy tried to do. Douthat’s opinion depends heavily on this paragraph he referred to in his own column:

‘The term “insurrection,” New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait wrote on Wednesday, is “a defensible shorthand for Jan. 6.” But it’s not “the most precise” term, because while “Trump attempted to secure an unelected second term in office,” he “was not trying to seize and hold the Capitol nor declare a breakaway republic.”’

MAN, that’s some fine parsing. He acknowledges that “insurrection” is a “defensible shorthand.” I read “defensible shorthand” as “a position that is readily supported.” Mr. Chait might just as well have written, “While insurrection is a correct term…” Cons don’t like it, anyway, because while “Trump attempted to secure an unelected second term…” Okay, I’ve got to stop you right there. You’re going to attempt to ‘yadda-yadda’ an attempt to “secure an unelected second term?” I THINK Mr Chait meant to write, while “Trump illegally tried to stay in power for his own purposes after losing a fair and honest election…”

Trying to stay in power after losing an election is okay with them because he “was not trying to seize and hold the Capitol nor declare a breakaway republic.” Uh-huh. That’s true, I guess. He was trying to seize and hold the White House, a whole different building! Still, I think Mr. Chait might well have intended to write that Trump wasn’t trying to hold the Capitol BUILDING, because he sure as hell was trying to “secure and hold” the Capitol of the nation. As to the rest, why would trump NEED to declare a breakaway republic after he had successfully betrayed and destroyed the existing republic?

It’s some very weak thinking (aka, classic conservatism). These guys just pick a story, insist they believe it, and then try to insist that everybody else believe it, too. They’re very, very frustrated nobody outside their delusional little circle will accept their preferred reality. Their main excuse for not blaming Trump, though, is that January 6th never happened and besides, it was Antifa, no, liberals, no BLM, and it was just an out of control mob out for a casual walk, a spontaneous event that grew, organically, from Trump’s inspirational speech.

Trump wasn’t giving a speech. He was rallying the troops before battle. He was rallying the troops HE had called out. As to “spontaneous?” These guys showed up dressed for the occasion.

The insets show the detail of the shirts those men are wearing AT the Capitol attack ON January 6th, 2021. Either these guys found a t-shirt printing shop that worked really, really fast on January 6th, 2021, stopped in, and had some casual, souvenir shirts made for the casual and peaceful stroll down to the Capitol, or they had inside information and had the shirts made beforehand.
Every con in the country: “PHOTOSHOP!”
If it is, take it up with ABC News, where the photo came from. I don’t think it is, though.

I think MOST of the people who went were just sheeple following along, likely caught up in the excitement. But I think there were a few who knew their part of the plan well before January 6th. They had at least enough time to have shirts made. Now all the cons have to do is explain all the rioters who showed up for the “casual event” with weapons and defensive tools, like gas masks, or garbage can lids to be used as shields.

Nice try, cons. Next, you need to explain away Trump’s phone call in which he asked someone to “find” him 11,780 votes and make clear how that was “just ensuring election integrity.” Oh, and the OTHER phone call in which he told a couple of people NOT to certify the vote and promised to get them attorneys. If you’re just doing your job, for what reason might you need attorneys?

I’ll tell you this: Cons are destroying this country because they can’t tell a lie from the truth. What I want from Santa this year is a sudden infusion of intelligence into certain conservative segments of this once-great nation.