There's a name for someone who calls violence 'legitimate.' It isn't 'Republican.' - Millbank
God bless those crafty wordsmiths of the Republican Party! The people who gave us “alternative facts,” “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “tender age shelters” and “hiking the Appalachian Trail” have outdone themselves. The Republican National Committee last week passed a resolution condemning GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) for serving on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — or, as the RNC called it, “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
Legitimate political discourse! Seven people died in connection with the attack, 140 police officers were hurt and 734 people have been prosecuted on charges ranging up to seditious conspiracy. Marauders sacked the Capitol for the first time since the War of 1812, threatening assassination, and smashing, clubbing and defecating to the tune of $1.5 million in property damage. But the Republican Party says it’s all legit. Just a bit of civil discourse.
(snip)
Now, the insurrectionists have become peaceful tourists or “political prisoners,” the Capitol Police murderers, the would-be assassins martyrs. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker now advising House Republicans, proposes jailing the members of the Jan. 6 committee. A week ago, Trump himself called for uprisings against “radical, vicious, racists prosecutors” investigating him, “because our country and our elections are corrupt.” He dangled pardons for the insurrectionists if he’s returned to power.
Poll after poll shows about 10 percent of the American public believes violence against the government is justified at this moment. Among Republicans, and particularly Republican men, the figure is substantially higher. And this was before the Republican National Committee decided it would officially decree that violence is “legitimate political discourse.” Among the Jan. 6 activities so justified:
(snip)
Now, the Republican National Committee, the official leadership of the GOP, has embraced this unspeakable violence as legitimate discourse. It’s an absurd euphemism — and it points to another one. To call a person who endorses violence against the duly elected government a “Republican” is itself Orwellian. More accurate words exist for such a person. One of them is “fascist.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/07/rnc-legitimate-political-discourse-insurrection/
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