What about BLM? Gas prices? Immigrants? The GOP's desperate diversion from sedition.
On Monday, the defensive coach of the Washington Commanders, Jack Del Rio, tweeted, “Would love to understand “the whole story “ about why the summer of riots, looting, burning, and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ??? #CommonSense”.
On Wednesday, he stood by his remarks, saying:
“I’m just expressing myself and I think we all as Americans have the right to express ourselves, especially if you’re being respectful. I’m being respectful. I just asked a simple question. Let’s get right down to it. What did I ask? A simple question — why are we not looking into those things if we’re going to talk about it. Why are we not looking into those things?
Because it’s kind of hard for me to say, I can realistically look at it, I see the images on TV, people’s livelihoods are being destroyed. Businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, where nothing burned down. And we’re going to make that a major deal.” [Bolding mine]
He later apologized for one remark on Twitter, writing:
“I made comments earlier today in referencing the attack that took place on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Referencing that situation as a dust-up was irresponsible and negligent and I am sorry,” he said. “I stand by my comments condemning violence in communities across the country. I say that while also expressing my support as an American citizen for peaceful protest in our country. I have fully supported all peaceful protests in America.”
At least Del Rio realized that his diminishment of sedition was offensive. Nevertheless, the team has fined him $100,000 for calling the 1/6 insurrection a “dust-up”.
Were this an isolated case it would be no “major deal”. But it is not. It is part of a concerted effort by conservative media, and their Republican poodles, to distract people from the enormity of the mob attack on the Capitol with a coordinated campaign of “whataboutism”.
Superficially, there is equivalence between the violence and arson that attended the BLM protests and the violence of the 1/6 rioters. But any similarities are cosmetic. The BLM movement was protesting the indisputable fact that cops frequently kill unarmed Black men in the US. The 1/6 uprising was based on a thoroughly discredited lie - that somebody stole the 2020 election.
Just before the jury brought in a verdict in the George Floyd murder trial, Rep. Maxine Water (D-CA) said that if Derek Chauvin was not found guilty of murder, she recommended the demonstrators turn up the heat.
“Well, we gotta stay on the street. And we’ve got to get more active. We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.”
GOP politicians seized the opportunity to be shocked — just shocked. Kevin McCarthy vowed to introduce a resolution to censure Waters “for these dangerous comments.” Majorie Taylor Greene filed a resolution seeking to expel Waters from Congress “for inciting violence and engaging in rioting and protest against citizens and officers of the United States, including President Donald J. Trump.” And Ted Cruz tweeted a link to a video of Waters’ comments and wrote, “Democrats actively encouraging riots & violence.”
Waters denied she was inciting violence. And a reasonable person listening to her remarks would conclude she was not. But whether she was or was not is irrelevant to the work of the 1/6 Committee. Waters was speaking for herself. She was not in cahoots with other politicians, political advisors, or lawyers. And the liberal media did not promote her remarks. At best, Ted Cruz could have tweeted, “A Democrat actively encouraging riots & violence”.
The BLM protestors are just one instance in a long list of citizens being civilly disobedient - a list including the “Unite the Right” riot, “Occupy Wall Street”, the Seattle anti-WTO protests, the Rodney King riots, and the anti-war and civil rights movements. And that is just a fraction of the times citizens have taken to the streets. As far back as 1786, Americans protested taxes in “Shay’s Riot”. And almost every year since some group has taken to the street to get more confrontational.
What makes the Capitol insurgency different and unique is that the sitting President of the United States attempted to subvert America’s Constitution and shatter the tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. There is no comparable event in American history. Only the Civil War comes close. And in that time of treason, Abraham Lincoln worked to keep the Union whole.
The conspiracy to downplay the existential threat to democracy by saying the 1/6 assault was only a "dust-up", not even as bad as the BLM demonstrations — and the repeated claim that the rioters were “tourists” and that it was “legitimate political discourse” — is compelling evidence of how deep this attempted coup goes.
The desperate need to distract by the GOP and Fox News (who were too scared to broadcast the prime-time public hearing) points to a widespread rot on the right. It will be interesting to find out who knew what when. And who else was in on the plot to destroy democracy.