ArcaMax

Fortunately, then-Vice President Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, refused to obey the mob’s call for him to (1) be hanged or (2) exercise powers that he knew he didn’t have.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, seemed to be putting the ship back upright with reassuring words. “The United States Senate will not be intimidated,” he said. “We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats.”

But voters are a different matter. The restoration of what appeared to be normal constitutional order didn’t last long.

In February, for example, the venerable Republican National Committee officially declared the insurrection to be a “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

That’s a mighty big burden to hang on the word “legitimate.”

And that burden only grew as the RNC also rebuked two GOP lawmakers, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, for daring to serve on the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, of which Cheney is co-chair.

How dare they attempt, you know, such quaint old-fashioned notions as bipartisan truth-seeking and accountability?

I’m still reluctant to use the F-word to describe politics in my own beloved country. But when the shoe fits, as my mom and dad used to say, wear it.

Besides, I’ve been hearing the F-word with greater frequency in the Age of MAGA as the ex-president’s influence over the party and its allied media has increased.

You could hear it in the reliably self-righteous rhetoric of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and podcaster. She ignited a storm of “She is a Nazi” tweets after she endorsed Christian nationalism in a speech at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, a growing showcase for MAGA stars, in Tampa.

...continued

(c) 2022 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.