Peaceful insurrections every day

‘Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga) made headlines … when he claimed the Jan. 6 Capitol takeover was just another ‘normal day of tourist visits’ to the Capitol.”

That quote is real. I couldn’t make it up. Clyde said it despite having been on site amid the chaos and violence. You and I know Capitol police don’t die in a normal day of service and that the $1.5 million in damage to the Capitol is not a normal tourist visit to hallowed halls. Tourists sometimes litter, a gum wrapper, or a Kleenex, or bring in mud on their shoes. That is a normal day. The congressman leaves me gasping for air not polluted by Trump clones. They don’t have to do more than exhale.

Unfortunately, he is not alone wandering in the halls of Congress without his keeper. I regret to say that bizarre view of reality transcends party lines and has spread beyond Capitol Hill. Here’s what a Washington Post poll concludes: Among Republicans, 34% say the FBI plotted and encouraged the insurrection, compared with 30% of independents and 13% of Democrats. Pollsters have concluded that possibly 25% of all Americans believe it.

The fact is there is no evidence to challenge government denials, yet Fox and other right-wing media persist in peddling nonsense.

That means tens of millions of people embrace nonsense as reality. “Law enforcement did it to suppress dissent” is the explanation the dangerously duped or deranged argue. I’ve said it before: They agree the earth is flat, the tooth fairy is real, the moon is made of green cheese. Trump probably told them so between court appearances.

My normally uncontrollable optimism makes me hope many of them aren’t registered and never vote. But, in a lucid moment, I know that is not true. They will be voting this year for president, for senators, and for congressmen and women. I shiver in fear and with good reason. That they will re-elect Donald Trump.

Here is more: “The people who went there to express their views, to support Trump, were peaceful,” said Richard Baum, 61, an independent voter from Odessa, Tex. “The government implants were the violent ones: the FBI, the police people that were put in there, the antifa and BLM hired by George Soros; everybody knows that.” Everybody includes anti-Semites. Soros is a nonpracticing Jew who has given over $30 billion to liberal causes and political campaigns. Antisemites use his name when talking of the “international Jewish conspiracy.”

Democracy depends on trust. We may all be skeptical about someone, or some action, by government, but what Donald Trump has inspired is fertile soil for autocracy, not democracy. He has reached beyond MAGA and is destroying the democratic society that is our glory.

Long after Donald Trump has gone on to his reward, the heirs of today’s deluded will be here, filled with paranoia and hate.

By the way, the thugs who destroyed the Capitol needed something to do when the National Pinochle tournament was canceled by the FBI.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.