If you’re quite gullible you believe that the real goal of the January 6th committee in the House is to investigate the Capitol Hill riot of last year. As such, call me. I have some real estate in Atlantis I’d like to interest you in.
If you are of a slightly more jaded and empirical nature then it’s pretty blatant what Pelosi and her Republicans fellow travelers are up to. They are trying to create a narrative before the midterms in an attempt to stave off a right good pranging. That narrative says that if you elect Republicans Donald Trump will return and turn us all into residents of a super fascist state where everyone will go without masks, manbuns will be outlawed, and lions, and tigers, and bears.
Now while Mr. Trump is the de facto head of the party right now, he does not control Congress. He also may have legal challenges this year that could damage his brand, making him seem less of a GOP standard bearer. Thus, the Democrat effort to wound the Republicans through the transitive property may not hunt as well as they suppose.
Granted, he did agitate that crowd of slack-jawed misfits and refused to call the guttersnipes off when they went way off the reservation. But the committee isn’t focusing on those two factors. It is casting a wider net and picking fights to expand its purview and extend its timeline to as close to the midterms as possible. Think Labor Day.
They know they won’t change any minds. Trump supporters think they are dangerous communists. Democrats think they are noble warriors for justice. Those of us who are thrilled with neither Trump nor the Democrats discount this as political performance art. However, the message is still aimed at hysterical Democrats and also at swing voters.
They want to get Democrat TDS juices flowing and increase turnout. They hope to scare swing voters and Independents with the above messages of fear. This is more proof that the only, the sole, the solitary message the Democrats have actually comes down to a single thing: Fear.
Fear of the climate, fear of the virus, fear of free speech, fear of the free market, fear of equal opportunity, fear of Trump, and countless other horrors. The greatest fright they reserve for themselves. Fear of losing power.
They comprehend that a serious rebuke in the midterms could presage the loss of the White House in 2024. Thus the GOP would control the Oval Office, Congress, and have a friendly Supreme Court. That is their nightmare scenario. It starts with a GOP win this November. Hence the January 6th committee.
They could get a nasty surprise, as some of the people they are calling to testify are no palookas and could do to them what Ollie North did to the Iran Contra committee in 1987. They would take the hit and move on to the midterms. That’s where the real battle, and the January 6th committee’s success or failure as a bringer of make believe political terror, will be decided one way or the other.