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You Do Not Get To Pretend To Be Surprised, And If You Do, We Damn Well Do Not Have To Pretend To Believe You, A Thread:
There are no surprises here. In a debate in October of 2016, when asked if he would accept the outcome of the election (2016!), Trump said, "if I win." (2/n)
He routinely suggested jailing his opponent. You might have heard a chant or something. (3/n)
He suggested, when talking about his opponent potentially appointing a Supreme Court justice, that people might seek "Second Amendment remedies." (That's wink-wink-nudge-nudge inciting people to kill a president, in case you haven't had coffee yet.) (4/n)
He routinely encouraged his supporters to beat up protestors in his rally crowds, lamenting the passing of the violent good old days and offering to pay the assaulters' legal bills. (5/n)
He fired an FBI director who wouldn't do his bidding, attacked his Attorney General for recusing himself from an investigation as the AG was required to do, demanded exonerations, bought people's silence with pardons, (6/n)
encouraged torture, and exhorted police officers to rough up arrestees.
There's only one single good thing about Donald J. Trump. He did this out loud and in public. No one can say they didn't know. (7/n)
There's only one single good thing about Donald J. Trump. He did this out loud and in public. No one can say they didn't know. (7/n)
(And all of this is just undermining the rule of law, and just off the top of my head at 5 AM. The obscenities of the Muslim ban, his response to Charlottesville, the intentionally orphaning children to punish their parents--all separate issues.) (8/n)
The lawlessness, too, is undergirded by white supremacy. If you haven't been reading @AdamSerwer on that for four years, you should start now. Start here: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-nationalists-delusion/546356/ (9/n)
And here. (Serwer is a journalist and a student of history; Black and Jewish. He has a very valuable perspective on our moment.) (11/n) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/adam-serwer-civility/600784/
Nor were the events of Jan. 6th a surprise. Trump was, in rallies and on Twitter, at full volume, saying that the election was stolen and encouraging his supporters to turn out in force on Jan. 6th in DC for two months. Did you think they were coming to play Parcheesi? (12/n)
There were plenty of people expressing concern about what could happen. Expressing concern about the potential for violence on January 6th. (As is so often the case, the prescient were tut-tutted by the savvy for being hysterical, overwrought, using the wrong words.) (13/n)
So now, after the insurrection and the deaths, the rats are deserting the soon-to-be-powerless soon-to-be-former occupant of the Oval Office. Now--with a week and a half left--they want to run themselves through the reputation laundry. (14/n)
We don't have to let them. We don't have to pretend to believe them. We don't have to buy their fake mea culpa or "let me tell you how bad things were from the inside" books. (15/n)
They don't have to get invited on @MeetThePress, interviewed by @jaketapper, or otherwise given a platform. @harvardiop doesn't have to offer them cushy reputation-laundering fellowships. (I know you like to have voices from all sides, @harvardiop. Howsabout draw a line? (16/n)
When Ted Cruz now talks about how he's long disagreed with Donald Trump's rhetoric, we should laugh in his face. He wanted to ride the tiger, got bit, and is now looking around for someone to sew him up. Don't. (17/n)
And for crying out loud, @CNN , the people who defended incitement to sedition and orphaning of children should not be hired as voices on your panels. (18/n)
Companies aren't just going to do this. We can help them along by reminding them that we care. (I called the law firms whose lawyers were helping Trump undermine the vote to share my dim view of making money that way. Enough of us call, it stops being worth it for them. (19/n)
Accountability has to mean something. Sure, there may be real cheshbon hanefesh and teshuva, but "I didn't know who he was/what this was headed for, and I'm shocked now"? Stuff it. We all knew. You knew. You don't get to rewrite history that way. (20/n)
You certainly don't get the credit of "resigning on principle" or "speaking out" when you were just fine going along until there were 13 days left. (21/n)
Whole bunch of "doing the actions of Zimri, demanding the rewards of Pinchas" going on out there. We don't have to let them. (22/n)
By the way, here's @AdamSerwer's latest. Read this one, too. (23/23, fin.) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/multiracial-democracy-55-years-old-will-it-survive/617585/
