We are living in a NeverTrump fantasy universe

Last July, Cockburn had this to say:

‘Commentators daydream of the moment Trump is dragged out, like Saddam Hussein from his spider hole, and then whisked off to prison to inaugurate the Democratic millennium. In reality, Donald Trump has shown remarkably little willpower in executing his own completely legal campaign promises. Where will he muster the willpower to overturn a 230-year-old electoral system?’

Whoops! Why does The Spectator even employ this cretin? Cockburn thought he was living in the merely cartoon reality of President Donald Trump. In fact, we don’t live in reality at all. We live in a fevered NeverTrump fantasy universe, worthy of the Lincoln Project at its most depraved.

threat but it is a threat nevertheless. Trump’s voter fraud lies are like poison. Cyanide. DEMOCRACIES require faith and belief in the legitimacy of free and fair elections. The entire system is built on this proposition. The American polity is being poisoned by Trump’s lies, 2/

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) November 11, 2020

Trump’s retribution in Georgia. Apparently the plan is to sate the insatiable ego of the defeated President by bending to the arc of his whims, fantasies and fabulisms. Trump hangs over the heads of all the ‘24 candidates and the Georgia runoff like Damocles Sword. What to do 4/

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) November 11, 2020

Do you have any idea how painful it is to admit that Steve Schmidt was right all along? Schmidt attributed a fly on Mike Pence’s forehead to demonic influence. Schmidt got in a debate with Jonah Goldberg within the past six months and managed to lose.

But when it came to the denouement of Donald Trump, Schmidt was Cassandra, and Cockburn was a decrepit King Priam. Cockburn was warned that Donald Trump would lead the Republican party to unprecedented disaster. He ignored the warning, but in a mere 24 hours Trump managed to cost Republicans the Senate and the moral high ground. The White House Counsel is telling White House staff to avoid interacting with the President in case they might whoopsie-daisy their way into committing treason. President Trump has made the Republican party a desert, and called it MAGA.

So will Cockburn admit to being wrong about everything? Heavens, no! Wednesday’s events were appalling, but let’s be honest about what happened: it was far more of a national embarrassment than a national tragedy. A hooligan mob was allowed to smash up our finest government building, apparently because the Capitol Police have been using their $400 million budget to buy donuts and car decals. The mascot for the entire travesty was a man dressed up as Conan the Barbarian. Like any riot, the biggest goal was mere wanton destruction and plunder.

In response, Chuck Schumer compared the situation to Pearl Harbor, a military assault that killed 2,400 Americans and sucked the country into a global war. Others compared the situation to 9/11. There was a competition for who would be most dramatic in their chosen label. Suddenly, ‘domestic terrorism’ feels like a quaint label. In fact, even ‘insurrection’ isn’t good enough. No, it was a full-blown coup attempt, apparently, and people who didn’t even take part are now ‘traitors.’

If you still work for the Trump administration tonight, you support this coup attempt and you will be remembered as traitors to democracy.

— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) January 7, 2021

'I can barely call them humans right now.' — @RepRubenGallego delivers a stinging rebuke to Sens. Cruz and Hawley, calling them 'traitors to our democracy' over their efforts to overturn the election pic.twitter.com/ABaLtZakrS

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 7, 2021

Today there was treason in this House. We will defend our democracy. pic.twitter.com/oYXJGRmpUz

— Ruben Gallego (@RepRubenGallego) January 7, 2021

Any House or Senate Republican who's still objecting to the election results tonight should be criminally charged with conspiracy to commit sedition and sent to federal prison for life.

— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) January 7, 2021

One of Missouri's largest newspapers, the Kansas City Star, says in an editorial that the state's junior senator has — in the words of the headline — "blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt."https://t.co/HsIBO0vzvc

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) January 7, 2021

Get a grip, America. This was not a serious attempt at a coup. There was no plan to seize control of anything, to exercise any power except the self-destructive freedom to destroy without immediate consequence. This was a deadly riot. America has had several dozen of those in the past year, including one in Washington. Many of those riots were publicly celebrated by people on TV. Language of the unheard and all that.

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President George W. Bush, so often wrong during his presidency, was completely right in his statement yesterday: the events at the Capitol made America look like a banana republic. What happens in the weeks to come will determine whether America actually has become one.