Quotes from Jul 21

[HelpImSurrounded]

Here is the worst part. Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation, were it threatened. They would put their lives and freedom at stake to protect her. And he is preying on their patriotism, their sense of justice, and on January 6, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our capitol and against our constitution. He has purposely created the false impression that America is threatened by a foreign force controlling voting machines, or that a wave of tens of millions of false ballots were secretly injected into our election system, or that ballots workers have secret thumb drives and are stealing elections with them. All complete nonsense. We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

--Rep. Liz Cheney (R, Wy.) Jul 21, 2022

Whatever your politics, whatever you think about the outcome of the election, we as Americans must all agree on this -- Donald Trump's conduct on january 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation. It is a stain on our history. It is a dishonor to all of those who have sacrificed and died in service of our democracy. When we present our full findings, we will recommend changes to laws and policies to guard against another January 6. The reason that's imperative is that the forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away. The militant, intolerant ideologies, the militias, the alienation, and the disaffection, the weird fantasies and disinformation -- they are all still out there, ready to go. That is the elephant in the room. But if january 6 has reminded us of anything, I pray it has reminded us of this -- laws are just words on paper. They mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law and who are held accountable by a public that believes oaths matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points. We, the people, must demand more of our politicians and ourselves. Oaths matter. Character matters. Truth matters. If we do not renew our faith and commitment to these principles, this great experiment of ours, this shining beacon on a hill, will not endure.

–Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R, Ill. ) Jul 21, 2022

[dalton99a]

1. Cheney and Kinzinger are patriots.

Their political careers are likely finished.

[iemanja]

2. I wonder about this strategy of placing all blame on Trump

Does it not help absolve the GOP?

And that crowd knew what they were doing on Jan. 6. They were willingly there on Trump's orders.

[HelpImSurrounded]

3. No. People are already going to jail

Like any mafia prosecution you start at the bottom and work your way to the top.

The GOP is absolutely guilty but cowardice and collaboration after the fact may not be criminal. With over 1,000 witnesses, indictments must be coming.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. Those were not patriots. They were fascists following orders.

[Bucky]

5. Right, of course. Cheney was trying to bait the groundhogs out of their holes.

There's a hard strain of violent extreme conformists in American history, from the No Nothings to the Klan lynch mobs to the Red Scares. The Maga knuckleheads are just the latest iteration of that mob mentality.

Cheney's a smart cookie. The problem with smart people is that they think most other people are smart too. They don't understand that "even a thousand Socrates are still a mob."

So yes, she thinks she'll redirect the Trumpanzees into being loyal pro-democracy Americans again with this "Trump just misdirected their patriotism" malarkey. And maybe she will run in 2024. But that ain't gonna happen. People like this can't be reformed. They can only be whittled down and voted back into the shadows for another generation.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. Yeah, that's the impression I got, too. ...

She wanted to set up those who are merely inFoxicated (nod to JHB for that term) and shock them into facing the real trump. The gangs and the completely brainwashed are irredeemable -- they are not interested in social equality or democracy.

[HelpImSurrounded]

7. Right, peel away the redeemable

She doesn't have to reform them all, she just needs to peel away enough that will happily return to anonymity so that the hard core no long has enough mass to be effective.

In the long run we need to find a way to deal with these people once and for all. They've been malingering since the civil war and they have just enough intellectuals amongst them to keep rebranding their traitorous agenda.