I struggled to put my thoughts and feelings together in dealing with January 6th, and specifically my two decisions regarding Donald Trump. In 2016, I did not vote for him but he became president; and in 2020 I did vote for him and he brought shame.
Yes, there is shame in supporting him and his behavior for years. There is shame in facilitating his whataboutism by rationalizing woth stupid “they did it first” arguments. There is shame in leading a horde into a frenzy then acting shocked when it engages in one. There is shame in screaming every imbalanced, exaggerated, irrational partisan rage but washing your hands of the result it brings.
There is shame in finding every way to deride your political opponents and “the media” with a your own broad brush while complaining that they will do the same to you.
There is shame in being what you complain about.
There is shame in making irony your virtue.
There is shame starting at home, on the keyboards that whip us into a daily fright fest, then act like they’re above it all.
We said this would happen before he was nominated. The remaining said it would happen before he became president. We repeated it would happen when he lost re-election. Now that what we all said would happen has happened you’re all trying to act like it was everyone else’s fault.
"The truth is that the media bears a lot of responsibility, but they are retconning the story to blame voters who never set foot in Washington D.C., or even gave a dime to the 'Stop the Steal' movement, never believing the tales of election rigging. But the media itself spewed lies for years. They latched on to the Russia story using a Clinton-funded fiction and made it their truth. They pushed conspiracy theories and “wall closing in” stories for four years. They highlighted profane leftist extremists and paid activists bemoaning Trump like he was a demon."
I can appreciate how difficult this entire piece may have been to write and I appreciate you writing it, instead of trying to deflect as others who supported Trump in 2020 are doing today.
That said, if you're going to blame "The Media" for a large part of this, your omission of OANN, NewsMax, Dan Bongino, and the entire OTHER side of "The Media" who spent every day between Election Day and January 6th lending credence to the notion that the election WAS actually stolen and a "Kraken" will emerge to vindicate the "patriots" trying to save the election is pretty significant. Now not all of them enjoy cable carriage rights or some of the other hallmarks that distinguish traditional media, but I also have a whole Facebook Messenger archive of messages that I received from the likes of the OTHER Media that kept insurrectionists' hopes alive with dud after dud that Trump was coming back.
So, when it comes to "retconning", let's not leave out the other part of the picture, which was as significant - if not more so - than anything the likes of CNN, MSNBC, etc. did during the Trump years, and especially on Jan. 6th.
I appreciate your nuanced take on this Steve, is strongly appreciated, as it is too often lacking in the narrative peddled by hyper partisans of all stripes. While I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020, I always believed it is a mistake to lump all Trump voters as monolithic in their mindset. I understand and appreciate why many voters reluctantly voted for Trump. (Other reasonable people voted for Trump out of habit of voting Republican every election, but aren’t hard core Trumpists. Most of these voters cited the insanely woke behavior by the left in recent years as well as the hard left lurch of the Democratic Party in that time period. That is why despite my strong anti-Trump stance, I never once ridiculed these voters for their Trump vote and sympathized with them. In order for us to move on from Trump, we need these reluctant and habitual GOP voters. That is why the MSM and the left’s tendency to lump all Trump voters together is counterproductive.
The GOP has got to be rethought. If all the crazy pants continue to support this guy then the rest of us have to move on. My only good feelz about this is that the dem's aren't going to galvanize a big vote themselves. Get a darned candidate this time or let's move on without Der Trumpster.
Yes, there is shame in supporting him and his behavior for years. There is shame in facilitating his whataboutism by rationalizing woth stupid “they did it first” arguments. There is shame in leading a horde into a frenzy then acting shocked when it engages in one. There is shame in screaming every imbalanced, exaggerated, irrational partisan rage but washing your hands of the result it brings.
There is shame in finding every way to deride your political opponents and “the media” with a your own broad brush while complaining that they will do the same to you.
There is shame in being what you complain about.
There is shame in making irony your virtue.
There is shame starting at home, on the keyboards that whip us into a daily fright fest, then act like they’re above it all.
We said this would happen before he was nominated. The remaining said it would happen before he became president. We repeated it would happen when he lost re-election. Now that what we all said would happen has happened you’re all trying to act like it was everyone else’s fault.
God help us.
You summarized my feelings this morning exactly. Thank you.
"The truth is that the media bears a lot of responsibility, but they are retconning the story to blame voters who never set foot in Washington D.C., or even gave a dime to the 'Stop the Steal' movement, never believing the tales of election rigging. But the media itself spewed lies for years. They latched on to the Russia story using a Clinton-funded fiction and made it their truth. They pushed conspiracy theories and “wall closing in” stories for four years. They highlighted profane leftist extremists and paid activists bemoaning Trump like he was a demon."
I can appreciate how difficult this entire piece may have been to write and I appreciate you writing it, instead of trying to deflect as others who supported Trump in 2020 are doing today.
That said, if you're going to blame "The Media" for a large part of this, your omission of OANN, NewsMax, Dan Bongino, and the entire OTHER side of "The Media" who spent every day between Election Day and January 6th lending credence to the notion that the election WAS actually stolen and a "Kraken" will emerge to vindicate the "patriots" trying to save the election is pretty significant. Now not all of them enjoy cable carriage rights or some of the other hallmarks that distinguish traditional media, but I also have a whole Facebook Messenger archive of messages that I received from the likes of the OTHER Media that kept insurrectionists' hopes alive with dud after dud that Trump was coming back.
So, when it comes to "retconning", let's not leave out the other part of the picture, which was as significant - if not more so - than anything the likes of CNN, MSNBC, etc. did during the Trump years, and especially on Jan. 6th.
I appreciate your nuanced take on this Steve, is strongly appreciated, as it is too often lacking in the narrative peddled by hyper partisans of all stripes. While I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020, I always believed it is a mistake to lump all Trump voters as monolithic in their mindset. I understand and appreciate why many voters reluctantly voted for Trump. (Other reasonable people voted for Trump out of habit of voting Republican every election, but aren’t hard core Trumpists. Most of these voters cited the insanely woke behavior by the left in recent years as well as the hard left lurch of the Democratic Party in that time period. That is why despite my strong anti-Trump stance, I never once ridiculed these voters for their Trump vote and sympathized with them. In order for us to move on from Trump, we need these reluctant and habitual GOP voters. That is why the MSM and the left’s tendency to lump all Trump voters together is counterproductive.
Wait. What????? You didn't vote for Trump in 2016, but you did in 2020???????
The GOP has got to be rethought. If all the crazy pants continue to support this guy then the rest of us have to move on. My only good feelz about this is that the dem's aren't going to galvanize a big vote themselves. Get a darned candidate this time or let's move on without Der Trumpster.
I highly recommend Karl Rove's recent op-ed https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-jan-6-responsibility-anniversary-riot-storm-capitol-trump-protesters-investigation-11641417707