By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
Congressional Republicans have their Big Lie — alleging vote fraud in the 2020 election. Now they might have spawned a smaller, but still significant, lie about the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to create a select committee to examine the cause and consequence of the riot against the government, it is good to examine the other “big lie” making the rounds on Capitol Hill.
It’s the one that suggests that the riot was nothing more than a group of “peaceful tourists” taking part in a tour of the Capitol Building. Indeed, some members of the GOP congressional caucus have uttered such trash.
It begs the question: When has a “routine tour” left feces on the walls of the Capitol Building, or smashed through windows, or assaulted police officers with weapons and pepper spray, or left two officers dead and many other participants injured?
Never in my entire life have I witnessed such an egregious attempt at lying, deceit and boorish conduct as we have seen among congressional Republicans who have resisted calls for a thorough examination of the insurrection we saw play out on Jan. 6.
They won’t call it what it was: an insurrection against the government. They won’t acknowledge the role that the 45th POTUS had in inciting the mob of terrorists.
This lie won’t ever rise to the level of The Big Lie, given that the riot occurred because the disgraced ex-POTUS made the phony allegation that day and ignited the mob to do what it did.
However, this lesser — but still significant — lie about the riot being nothing out of the ordinary is bad enough. It likely will scar the current cult that masquerades as a political party perhaps for the rest of its existence.
“Never in my entire life…”. Nor mine either, John! But I go further. I envision my colleagues across the isle staring at me. Me, stone-faced, open-mouthed, wide-eyed, not believing that they would have such unbelievably low intelligence as to think I would be taking even one syllable of the time-stopping words, “routine tour”, seriously. All hearts stop, for all in attendance realize those words have stamped the speaker indelibly, “unable to carry on a conversation with anyone allowed passage into these hallowed halls”, excepting Pres. Kennedy’s children in the year of their father’s death.