George Orwell’s reality-twisting futuristic novel, “1984,” suddenly popped into my head the other day. Now why, you might ask, would I be thinking of Orwell’s story of a totalitarian world where the government maintains total control over the people by creating its own reality, its own truth?
Maybe it’s due to the latest reality-bending behavior of the Republican Party. Last week the Republican National Committee (RNC) passed a resolution to censure House Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kitzinger for their work on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The resolution accused the two representatives of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
Really? “Persecution of ordinary citizens?” “Legitimate political discourse?” Sounds like the government of Orwell’s Oceania speaking, where violent lawbreakers might become tourists out for a peaceful stroll at the Capitol. I call that outright truth-altering lying, another attempt to confuse voters about what really happened.
Didn’t we see with our own eyes the acts of insurrection, violence against police officers, our terrified elected officials running for their lives, and the destruction of our Capitol building that occurred on Jan. 6, last year? Yes, we did. We saw it live on TV, in news videos, but also in the hundreds of phone videos taken by the Trump-supporting, treasonous rioters themselves as they destroyed and desecrated the U.S. Capitol and then spread those videos proudly on social media. I saw it. You saw it. It happened.
If I take a large object, one I’ve just stolen from a beaten police officer and bash it into the window of a property that is not mine, is that not an illegal act? I would be arrested and charged with a crime. Is the RNC saying that it’s quite alright and legal for me to go to one of their houses and bash in a few windows, enter the premises and smear some unpleasant material on their walls when I feel the need to express my political views?
Legitimate political discourse? This can’t be the same RNC, whose chair, Rona McDaniel, put out a statement seven brief days after the insurrection last year stating that “Those who threaten our political leaders with acts of violence will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law… The peaceful transition of power is one of our nation’s founding principles and is necessary for our country to move forward.”
The RNC is made up of many powerful Republican Party members who create the policies and platforms that define what the party stands for. One of those powerful RNC members is Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader.
Here’s some of what the senator had to say about the former president’s responsibility for the Jan 6th insurrection after Trump’s second impeachment trial last year, immediately after voting to acquit him of his crimes:
“American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like. Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.”
Clearly, the man was horrified by his president’s attempted coup, but not enough to convict him for his actions. And now that terrible event has become merely “legitimate political discourse.” Nothing to see here, no big deal.
We have two major political parties in this country and one of them is working to convince its citizens that what we saw on Jan. 6 last year simply did not happen. And why? To satisfy the twisted needs of the former president who continues to spread lies and misinformation about his loss in the last election.
What the former president seems to want more than anything is to not be a loser, and then to return to the Oval Office. But there’s more. He’s aware that prosecutors in several states are getting closer in their investigations to probable indictments of his many criminal acts. He’s out on the campaign trail doing his very fun rallies, lying about the “stolen” election, nonexistent voter fraud, and, of course, any and all ongoing investigations.
And he does seem to be making it worse for himself. At one rally he made it clear he would pardon the insurrectionists should he be reelected in 2024. Well, of course he would, they were only expressing legitimate political discourse while attacking police that day. And last week, at a rally in Texas, he admitted that he had demanded then Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election. Let’s think about that for a minute. We don’t overturn elections in a democracy, we respect the will of the people and gracefully turn over the reins of government to the fairly elected candidate. Trump just admitted he attempted a coup.
Fortunately for us, the former vice president refused to participate in that coup and even came out a few days ago to say former ” … President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”
I sure hope U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is paying attention and taking notes.
Maybe it’s time I reread Orwell’s “1984” to see if it still affects me in the same way it did in my youth. But then again, it just might be too similar to our current fraying reality for me to cope with.
Karen Gardner lives in Haydenville.