It’s been four-and-a-half months since a large and violent mob stormed the Capitol, endangering the lives of all inside, resulting in five deaths and a nation rattled. Though their motives have always been clear — they were hopped up on lies spread by Trump and others about the 2020 general election — many details remain unclear. Luckily, a federal investigation was recently proposed…which, of course, is being blocked by the vast majority of congressional Republicans, for reasons that aren’t hard to imagine.
It’s yet another case of a party trying to gum up the works, despite no longer having any real power. And some, at least, have had enough. One is Tim Ryan, Democratic representative to Ohio, who earned huzzahs in March for screaming at his colleagues across the aisle, begging them to “stop talking about Dr. Seuss” and actually do their jobs to help Americans in need.
On Wednesday Ryan tried once more to talk some sense into the GOP. He started by thanking the too few Republicans who were trying to make the investigation technically bipartisan. As for the rest, well…
Wow Tim Ryan has had enough pic.twitter.com/xAvjLikr6H
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 19, 2021
“To the other 90% of our friends on the other side of the aisle, holy cow!” Ryan began. He tried to remind them that they care about such matters when it’s Democrats. “Benghazi — you chased the former secretary of state all over the country, spent millions of dollars.” And he excoriated them to not doing the same for something with a higher body count and the potential for even more harm to the nation:
“We have people scaling the Capitol, hitting the Capitol police with lead pipes across the head, and we can’t get bipartisanship. What else has to happen in this country? Cops: this is a slap in the face to every rank-and-file cop in the United States. If we’re going to take on China, if we’re going to rebuild the country, if we’re to reverse climate change, we need two political parties in this country who are both living in reality, and you ain’t one of them.”
Will this work? Or will the party continue to be in thrall to a disgraced septuagenarian former president-turned-blogger who now lives in resorts amongst strangers?