Much as most of us on the progressive left want to see our representatives in Congress fight aggressively for what we believe, it is dangerous that it must come out this way. But it most certainly does have to come out this way.

We try not to say it out of fear of inflaming the situation but we do find ourselves amidst a Cold Civil War and it gets increasingly hot by the day, post-January 6th. Yesterday the anger went to a new level throughout meetings in the House as Democrats lashed out at Republicans who put lives in danger by objecting to the Electoral College votes and promoting Trump’s “Big Lie.” Even an insurrection did not shame the MAGA-GOP.

Several examples from Wednesday stand out. From The Hill:

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) lashed out at a top Trump ally, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who had accused Democrats of attacking Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last year simply to damage Trump’s reelection chances. 

“It was all a charade!” Jordan said.  

“I didn’t vote to overturn an election. And I will not be lectured by people who did, about partisanship,” Connolly shot back, jabbing his finger at Jordan.

It was a stunning rebuke in a nation that used to pride itself on good-faith democracy and comity among representatives in government. But the Connally episode was not isolated:

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday lashed out at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for giving “aid and comfort” to the insurrectionists.

McCarthy, a short time later, would reply in turn, using a rare floor speech to accuse Democrats of adopting strategies of “grievance” designed to silence “millions of constituents” represented by the minority Republicans.

We don’t even know what that means, “strategies of grievance” to silence millions of constituents, but if it means what we think it means, it is awfully rich coming from a man who leads a party that tried to overturn the election out of a self-serving “grievance” on behalf of a want to be dictator, all in the form of an insurrection.

“It’s an improbable situation because these are the people that tried to undermine our government. And they may be no less guilty than the people who attacked the Capitol,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.).

Let us help Pascrell out, the MAGA-GOP in the House are more guilty than the people that attacked the Capitol. Had these GOP representatives been honest with their constituents and told them the truth, the insurrection would not have happened.

Republicans, for their part, accuse Democrats of distorting the events of Jan. 6 in order to paint the entire GOP as complicit for the actions of the mob.

No, not everyone in the GOP is complicit, Liz Cheney, for example, put her political career on the line to vote against the objections and voted to impeach Trump. Seven members of the Senate voted to find Trump guilty. The Republicans that aren’t complicit in January 6th? They know they are not complicit, and more importantly, we know they’re not complicit.

But we also damn well know which ones were complicit. Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley … Everyone knows, including the ones that have the most responsibility, and that is ultimately why things are getting so heated. Some MAGAs are on the defensive and getting defensive. But things are definitely boiling over in Congress. As it damn well should.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak