How does the current Republican Party view the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on our nation’s Capitol? The Republican National Committee has made that clear. Their letter of censure notes the action taken against Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger is because they are participating in the Democrats’ persecution of “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Let that sink in for a moment. A rabid mob attacked our nation’s Capitol, broke through police lines using various weapons and injuring hundreds in the process, smashed through the Capitol’s windows and doors, yelling fight for Trump, and threatening members of Congress.

They ransacked congressional offices and meeting rooms all in an effort to overturn the 2022 presidential election. We all watched it on TV. Anyone really think it looked like normal tourists just going about their business? Anyone think building a scaffold of nooses and yelling that they wanted to hang Mike Pence seemed like typical sight-seeing behavior? Anyone believe breaking into the House chamber to disrupt the electoral count is ordinary political discourse?

Apparently the RNC does. How low will Republicans go in their support for Trump? We still don’t know. It’s surpassed all my worst expectations and I don’t believe it has hit bottom yet. What is terribly clear now is that many Republicans have accepted violence as “legitimate political discourse.” The first question that we must ask any Republican currently in or running for office is, “Do you believe the Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol was the result of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse?” Anyone who can not answer no to this question should be barred from holding public office. Let that sink in.

 

Roy Estabrook

North Monmouth