On Mitch and January 6

The Trumpists have thrown out a variety of theories behind the riot, including the following:

1. The rioters were patriots whose violence was totally justifiable, as they were trying to stop Congress from ratifying the results of a stolen election;
2. The rioters were actually antifa, as no self-respecting right-winger would kill a police officer;
3. The rioters really didn’t do that much damage–they were actually tourists; and
4. The rioters were peaceful until they were provoked by violent police officers. Think Chicago 1968, except the martyrs were reactionaries.

These theories are mostly mutually exclusive, but they have one thing in common: they get Donald Trump and his GOP allies off the hook.

Mitch McConnell denounced the rioters in no uncertain terms, so he can’t rely on any of the Trumpist rationales. Keeping the votes of the Trumpists, however, is his overriding objective (far more important than saving American liberal democracy), so what he can say?

For McConnell, January 6 is a political tornado–a natural disaster whose causes cannot be analyzed and explained. Any attempt to fix blame is consequently counterproductive, and inevitably partisan. Just shut up and move on.

It sounds a lot like the authors of the 1619 Project talking about the Civil War.