So this happened [1].
The @FairfaxGOP is now calling January 6 insurrectionists “political prisoners” – I never thought I’d see the committee that brought us respected national leaders fall this far…
That’s right folks. According to the Republican committee in the largest jurisdiction in the Commonwealth, the January 6 insurrectionists are “political prisoners.”
In order to even consider such a notion, one must be – well – fascist. Sure, that sounds harsh, but is there really a better term? Even David Frum [2] – who created the word “fascoid” to avoid using the seven-letter f-bomb – has come around on this (emphasis in original).
We’re past the point of pretending it was antifa that did January 6, past the point of pretending that Trump didn’t want what he fomented and what he got. In his interview on July 11—as in the ever more explicit talk of his followers—the new line about the attack on the Capitol is guilty but justified. The election of 2020 was a fraud, and so those who lost it are entitled to overturn it.
“I do not consider myself guilty. I admit all the factual aspects of the charge. But I cannot plead that I am guilty of high treason; for there can be no high treason against that treason committed in 1918.”
Maybe you recognize those words. They come from Adolf Hitler’s plea of self-defense at his trial for his 1923 Munich putsch. He argued: You are not entitled to the power you hold, so I committed no crime when I tried to grab it back. You blame me for what I did; I blame you for who you are.
Trump’s no Hitler, obviously. But they share some ways of thinking. The past never repeats itself. But it offers warnings. It’s time to start using the F-word again, not to defame—but to diagnose.
I would also note that both fascists based their claim to power on a lie. The German military had lost World War I, but handed over power to the elected legislature before surrendering so they could appear blameless. Trump lost the 2020 election, but refuses to admit it – whether for his own ego, a condition Putin is imposing upon him for the bailout he needs post-Trump-Org-indictment, or a combination of the two.
The motive no longer matters, because as Frum noted …
… what the United States did not have before 2020 was a large national movement willing to justify mob violence [3] to claim political power. Now it does.
By calling the insurrectionists “political prisoners,” the Fairfax GOP has become part of the mob-violence-justification crowd.
Does Glenn Youngkin agree with them?
Is he willing to condemn them for this?
Or will he hope their support for the insurrectionists fades away and quietly give them control of the Fairfax election board if he wins?
That is not a risk Virginians inside or outside of Fairfax can take.