Philip Bump of The Washington Post covers the latest remarks from former narcissist-in-chief. A taste: …In an interview with the far-right cable channel One America News that was released on the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, former...
Insurrection-Jan 6
Conservative commentators Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg are leaving Fox News
They are leaving because of the “voices of the responsible” commentators “are being drowned-out by the irresponsible.” The tipping point was Patriot Purge, a three-part documentary hosted by Tucker Carlson. Here are Hayes and Goldberg: The special—which ran on Fox’s...
More on the new Lost Cause
Are we seeing a new Lost Cause? David Graham of The Atlantic thinks so. So do these scholars and writers: The Evangelical Lost Cause comes to Orlando Are conservatives advancing a new Lost Cause? The Evangelical Lost Cause is alive...
What do white evangelicals think about the January 6, 2021 insurrection?
I got some time today to look at the recent survey on January 6 conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. The survey found that 57% of white evangelical Christians believe that liberal or left-wing activists such as Antifa were...
Tweet of the Day
From Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson:...
George W. Bush compares “violent extremists at home” to the “violent extremists” who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001
Here are two take-away quotes from today’s speech at Shanksville, Pennsylvania Many of us have tried to make spiritual sense of these events. There is no simple explanation for the mix of providence and human will that sets the direction...
January 6, 2021: What does Kevin McCarthy and the GOP have to hide?
Kevin McCarthy and other GOP House members are threatening American telecommunication companies that have received subpoenas from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection. What do they have to hide? Here is Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene: It’s...
What happened on January 6 was an attempted coup
Here is Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post: I try not to be alarmist, but it is difficult to read the latest accounts and not be alarmed. The drip-drip-drip evolution of this story has served to mask how serious the...
January 6, 2021 must not be normalized
Midway through the Trump administration people started e-mailing to tell me that I had “Trump derangement syndrome.” Even very smart people for whom I have much respect were telling me that I needed to calm down in my criticism of...
Chait: “Imagine a 9/11 commission if the hijackers had allies in Congress”
Here is Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine: In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, when both parties agreed on the need for an investigation into the attack, the shorthand that entered the lexicon was 9/11-style commission. When, on January...
What did the congressman know about the insurrection?
What did William Seward (NY) and Henry Wilson (MA) know about the John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry? Here is Sidney Blumenthal at The Guardian: The House select committee on the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol, according to chairman...
This is what too often passes for conservative evangelical politics today
Watch Dinesh D’Souza: Evangelical pastors invite D’Souza to speak at their churches and schools. In the last two years D’Souza has spoken at: Emmanuel Enid Church in Enid, Oklahoma Church of Glad Tidings in Live Oak, California Calvary Chapel–Chino Hills...
Annette Gordon-Reed talks race and American history
Here is a taste of Chauncey DeVega’s interview with Gordon-Reed at Salon: Why are so many (white) people upset by basic facts about the color line and its centrality to American history? Guilt. That is why there are people who...
Who were the evangelical Christians who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021?
I have already introduced readers to Tyler Ethridge, a Seven Mountain Dominionist trained at Charis Bible College’s David Barton School of Government. But Ethridge was not the only evangelical Christian at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Here is Michelle...
President Joe Biden on the 6-month anniversary of January 6, 2021
In case you missed it yesterday: Not even during the Civil War did insurrectionists breach our Capitol, the citadel of our democracy. But six months ago today, insurrectionists did. They launched a violent and deadly assault on the people’s house,...
What happened on January 6, 2021?
The New York Times has analyzed thousands of videos related to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and put together its own 40-minute video. It is calling this video “the most comprehensive picture to date of what happened–and...
Nancy Pelosi picks Liz Cheney for House committee investigating Jan. 6
Cheney lost her leadership position in the GOP caucus when she refused to go along with the Big Lie. She is the only Republican member of the committee. Here is AXIOS: In a closed-door meeting with freshmen Republicans Wednesday, McCarthy...
Pence says he was “proud” to certify the election
Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman on the latest from Penceville: Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday night made his most forceful attempt yet to separate himself from his former boss, Donald J. Trump, on the issue of certifying the...
Some January 6 insurrectionists are finally getting around to studying American history
Defense attorney H. Heather Shaner is giving books and movies on the Holocaust, lynching, slavery, and the Tulsa Race Massacre to defendants arrested in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Here is Ryan J. Rielly...
Why doesn’t the GOP just say it: “We support the January 6 insurrectionists!”
Matt Ford of The New Republic is waiting for it to happen: Instead of the free and open denunciation of the Capitol riot, a growing number of Republican officials are softening their position from “It was Bad” to, at worst,...