It’s now old news that Senate Republicans blocked an investigation into the 6 January insurrection and deadly attempted coup by Trump-supporting armed domestic terrorists whose mission included hanging the Republican Vice-President, Mike Pense.
“If Senate Republicans can block an independent commission investigating a deadly armed attack on the Capitol because it might hurt their poll numbers with insurrectionists, then something is badly wrong with the Senate” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Something is wrong, evident in how the Republican Party has expanded the front on its war against U.S. democracy; the battle to restrict voting rights and rig elections the latest mission – which is backed by the rightwing-led United States Supreme Court.
Not to be outdone by the Mitch McConnell Senate Republicans, House Minority ‘Leader’, the pathetic Kevin McCarthy, is threatening to “take committee assignments away from any Republican member who accepts an offer to serve” on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s urgently drafted House panel with the democracy-saving assignment to investigate the who, what, when, where and why of the 6 January 2021 armed insurrection and attempted overturn of a legitimate national election.
The vote to form the Pelosi investigative unit was 222 for – 190 against. Two Republicans, Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, voted with Democrats. Cheney has accepted an assignment in the unit. Rep Cheney doesn’t seem to be intimidated by McCarthy’s bluster.
Neither is Kinzinger, who is not in the unit but sums up McCarthy’s threats perfectly; as only a legitimate bad ass can (he served in the Air Force Special Operations and Air Combat Command).
Said Kinzinger: “Who gives a shit?”
On the other hand, unfortunate for America, most of the Republican Party and its limited but dangerous missions resemble not the democracy-seeking model such as the one sought by most citizens of the United States of America but more the autocratic-dictatorial model such as the Peoples Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
As part of the runup to celebrations marking its 100th anniversary, a new museum commemorating the history of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) opened in June in Beijing. Much of the CCP’s propaganda on display focuses on China’s future, but the party remains obsessed with controlling the telling of its own past; similar, one could point out, to efforts by America’s Republican Party.
On the other hand, fortunate for America, there is no mystery around the Republican Party. Even as they try to erase what happened on 6 January 2021, even as they try to erase history of America’s war to maintain slavery and the enduring systemic racism that plagues the nation, even as they try to rig the electoral processes, the whole world knows who and what the Republican Party was, is, and very well might be.
Though one might disagree with much of their politics, one might agree that if more elected Republican officials like Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger and their followers stood up for The Big Truths, America could survive the telling of its own past, right the wrongs of its present and protect its future.
Or not…
The Communist Party of China has at least 95 million members, found in every corner of society from the country’s richest and well placed to virtually every village. Party officials take swipes at critics who say the numbers do not represent the party and the Chinese people as a united whole. But the ever growing reach of the Party are proving critics wrong.
Dressed in a Mao-era suit, China’s President, Xi Jinping, addressed crowds of celebratory (and required adoring) Chinese citizens and promised them, the country, and the world:
“The Chinese people will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us. Whoever nurses delusions of doing that will crack their heads and spill blood on the Great Wall of steel built from the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
“We’ll never accept insufferably arrogant lecturing from those ‘master teachers!'”, Mr. Xi continued, drawing a roar from the seated crowd of party members, schoolchildren and veterans. Rumbles of distant thunder punctuated Mr. Xi’s remarks, and dozens of large, red Chinese flags hoisted around the square flapped noisily in the wind.
So tomorrow, with tear-dampened eyes and fireworks ablaze lighting the nighttime sky in villages, towns and cities across the nation, Americans will hoist flags, some cheering, some with hands across their heart, some standing at attention saluting, while still others, unsure of their place in the spectacle, will gather and glare, with assault rifles and bullets hanging from their shoulders.
And on Monday, all will retreat to their heavily guarded encampments.
