We Need To Investigate Whether the Whole Republican Party Is Guilty of Treason
By: Walter Rhein
Tags: Republicans, Insurrection, Trump, Politics, Violence

We Need To Investigate Whether the Whole Republican Party Is Guilty of Treason

Photo by Koshu Kunii on Unsplash

Will republicans call for my death in response to this article? Will they go on television a few weeks after my body is found floating in a river and try to brush it off by saying it was an “unfortunate” consequence of a “lawful” protest that became a little too “exuberant?”

“We didn’t mean to kill him, we just love freedom so much!”

No, they’ll probably use words like “patriot” and “constitutional rights” in their official statement to make it sound better.

“Last Friday, a group of noble patriots exercised their constitutional rights to organize a peaceful freedom rally to celebrate the military, America, hamburgers and Jesus. In the midst of this wonderful rally, a member of Antifa lost his life.”

If there’s one thing the Republican Party is good at, it’s reframing a narrative. They don’t face reality, they manufacture it, and they’re working overtime right now. The reason they’re working overtime is because on January 6th, 2021, a mob of insurrectionists bearing Trump flags tried to overthrow our government.

This is the only story that should be in the news. Every second of the day should be dedicated to covering and investigating this cowardly act. We need to know who was involved, what were their orders, and how long was this in the planning stage. Who was complicit in this blatant act of treason?

The republicans don’t want us to know. Why do you think that is? Because they’re innocent?

I doubt it.

The American propaganda machine

That the mass media is fumbling this issue is nothing new. In their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky discuss the media filters that determine what stories are promoted and how they are presented.

To say that our media has an element of propaganda should not be confused with Trump’s fraudulent assertion of “fake news.” The news that we are subjected to is not “fake,” but it is filtered. There is a presentation bias that is calculated to serve the ends of certain powerful entities.

The elite domination of the media and marginalization of dissidents that results from the operation of these filters occurs so naturally that media news people, frequently operating with complete integrity and goodwill, are able to convince themselves that they choose and interpret the news “objectively” and on the basis of professional news values. Within the limits of the filter constraints they often are objective; the constraints are so powerful, and are built into the system in such a fundamental way, that alternative bases of news choices are hardly imaginable — Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, page 2

An example of a filter currently in action can be seen in the fact that the mass media is not emphasizing the question of whether or not the events leading up to and including the January 6th Capitol Hill insurrection represent a treasonous attack on our country organized and operated by the Republican Party.

Instead, the effort seems to be to minimize the seriousness of the events of that day.

Why should the American people stand for this? Why isn’t the Democratic Party pushing this story for their own political gain? People were killed! Offices at the Capitol were ransacked which potentially put the security of our nation at risk.

There should be round the clock news coverage of the insurrection investigation that matches the media’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Instead, programs are giving politicians the opportunity to incessantly bloviate about how inconsequential the attack was when they cover it at all.

I can’t think of anything more disrespectful to the brave police officers that were injured or lost their lives during the attack. Is this a cover up that everyone is in on? Why?

Was the January 6th insurrection a coup attempt?

We need to have a serious discussion as to whether or not Trump’s actions represent an attempted coup. If you were to pose this question to Ted Cruz or republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy, they’d laugh in your face. However, keep in mind that mockery is often used as a rhetorical weapon to discredit a line of inquiry. You can only truly dismiss an accusation when you’ve made the appropriate investigation.

Here’s a brief discussion of a coup so you can decide for yourself whether the January 6th insurrection applies:

During a coup, a government’s executive authority is displaced or removed suddenly and by illegal means, according to the Coup D’état Project (CDP) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. Coups are not always violent, and they typically originate with small, elite groups already within the government. However, a coup can also be triggered by military actions, the involvement of operators representing foreign governments, or popular revolts “manifested by high levels of civil unrest,” the CDP says — Mindy Weisberger, What is a coup?

Articles like the one quoted above were common in the weeks following the insurrection. However, since then the media seems to have moved on from this narrative.

Why?

Why aren’t they pushing this question? It’s the most important question facing our nation that I can remember in my lifetime. How much did republican leaders know, and what were they trying to achieve? People got killed on that day. This isn’t a topic we should brush under the rug.

Punished for asking questions

Republican representative Liz Cheney was removed from her position of leadership in part because of her refusal to go along with the party narrative on the January 6th insurrection.

Rep. Liz Cheney said some of her Republican colleagues in Congress are opposed to a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot because they helped provoke the attack or are otherwise culpable. Cheney, who was ousted from leadership by her own party on Wednesday, has repeatedly called for a bipartisan commission comprising retired officials with subpoena power to investigate the attack on the Capitol. But GOP leadership and many other lawmakers are opposed to a commission solely focused on the deadly assault. Instead, they want to expand the focus to include violence that resulted from Black Lives Matter protests last summer — Eliza Relman, Liz Cheney says the Capitol riot investigation ‘threatens’ GOP lawmakers because they ‘played a role they should not have been playing’

This is a bombshell of a statement. Cheney has floated the possibility that some republicans were involved, but the media is more focused on the fact that she has been ousted.

I’m sorry, what about the part where a high ranking member of the Republican Party expressed concerns that other members of her party might have been involved in an attempt to overthrow the government? If that’s not news, I don’t know what is!

How much was Trump involved?

For some reason, the media seems to be disregarding a lot of bombshell statements lately. Trump’s acting defensive secretary, Christopher Miller, also recently made some very concerning comments.

President Donald Trump asked for National Guard troops to be deployed to protect his supporters at the rally on January 6 that culminated in hundreds of those supporters violently storming the Capitol, his former acting defense secretary told lawmakers on Wednesday. Christopher Miller told the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday that he held a meeting with Trump on January 3, three days before the violent siege in Washington, DC, which resulted in at least five fatalities — Thomas Colson, Trump asked for troops to do ‘whatever was necessary’ to protect demonstrators who went on to storm the Capitol

The way I read that, it seems as if Trump demanded that the National Guard be present to help his supporters as they made their violent march on the Capitol. That’s a problem. That’s a big problem.

The propaganda machine keeps rolling

When the news does elect to report on this issue, it’s in the form of quoting the Republican Party line as filtered through talking heads like Meghan McCain.

“There’s a crisis at the border, the Middle East is on fire, inflation rates are sky high, unemployment is crazy, people can’t get gas in their cars… I think we should be focusing on that vs. re-litigating something that happened four months ago,” said McCain — Keydra Manns, Sunny Hostin shuts down Meghan McCain: US ‘should never forget’ insurrection

In what world do McCain’s comments make sense? Because something happened “four months ago” we should just forget about it? How the heck does an adult managed to go on television and make such a fundamentally asinine comment? You should lose your job for saying something like that. A person who would say that should not be allowed to have a platform of any influence.

Also, look at the classic tactic to pivot and distract. McCain’s statements come from the same strategy as the concept that other protests should be investigated along with the Capitol Hill insurrection. They want to leverage their insurrection and weaponize it for yet another unprovoked, racist attack.

Cultivating and deploying racism is fundamental to basic conservative strategy.

The Capitol Hill insurrection is a republican hot potato. They want to get off the topic as fast as they can without ever fully examining it.

That’s irresponsible. It’s disrespectful to our country. It’s disrespectful to the dead. It’s disrespectful to freedom.

The whole media is complicit

As much as I despise the statements of folks like Ted Cruz, Meghan McCain, and Kevin McCarthy, they’re saying exactly what I expected them to say. These snakes in the grass have painted themselves in a corner. They have to pretend the January 6th insurrection was “no big deal” because otherwise they’re looking at jail time.

Liz Cheney’s position is surprising because why in the pantheon of lies from the Republican Party did she decide this was the one that was incompatible with her values? All of a sudden, out of the blue, she can’t take the lying? Is it because the insurrection put her life in danger? Was that the bridge too far which finally caused this lie merchant to pack up her wares and make a timid objection?

The people who really disappoint me are individuals like George Stephanopoulos or Anderson Cooper or Chris Cuomo. These are people who are smart enough to know what’s going on. They’re in a position where they can emphasize the severity of the January 6th insurrection on a daily basis. Instead, they seem to have decided to sit back and “watch how things play out” with entitled smirks on their faces.

There’s substantial evidence to suggest high ranking members of the Republican Party conspired to overthrow our country on January 6th, 2021. The American people need to stand up and demand some answers. Go protest at your local Republican Party headquarters. Call your local representatives. Call local reporters. Call your pastor. We can’t sit passively and allow this kind of aggression go uncontested.