Why we should be more politicized – especially after January 6

As President Joe Biden last week marked the anniversary of the January 6 uprising with a speech handling former President Donald Trump for inciting rioters, Senator Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) jumped in to defend Trump. “What a brazen political act on January 6th by President Biden,” senator tweeted.

Graham immediately received a worthy roast on social networks. “The attempted coups were political”, one critic shown. Seems clear enough. However, over the weekend, Graham double down – an indication that his complaint about “politicizing” Democrats is not a silly quirk, but a deliberate strategy to shield Republicans from criticism for their role in the uprising.

“I’m really disappointed in the tone of the president and vice president – of January 6 politicization,” he told radio host John Catsimatidis. “The American people reject what happened on January 6, but by November 2022, they will reject the Democratic Party.”

Graham was joined Sunday by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who went on TV to complain about Democratic-led celebrations last week while the main House of Representatives rest breaks.

“You see what they did last week when we went out, trying to politicize January 6th,” McCarthy said. Fox News, quickly added that “everyone believes that what happened on January 6th is wrong beyond false.”

Is not everyone. Most Americans agree that what happened on January 6th is wrong. But polling shows that Republican voters tend to take the issue less seriously – they describe the fundamentalists as “defend democracy“or believe in conspiracy theories that it’s one”wrong flag“the operation was designed to discredit Trump and his followers. That put Graham and McCarthy in a dilemma. They couldn’t defend the indisputable, but they couldn’t criticize either. it’s too direct and maintains a good standing with their party base That’s how Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have trouble with Tucker Carlson. So they used the third option: Insult the opponent’s anger.

What’s worse than an uprising? Honestly about it, obviously. It’s ridiculous, and also a bit anti-democratic.

After all, politics is how we solve our common problems. But it’s a messy and sometimes ugly process that makes accusations of “politicization” easy and powerful: Ordinary Americans often don’t like the way politics plays out for them. ONE USA Today poll conducted last month showed that for all of our political polarization, almost three-quarters of us want less political hostility and more focus on finding common ground. .

That sounds good. Almost.

With the rare exception, we don’t start with a common ground on major issues. We must journey to meet there. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, sometimes it does, and sometimes it just happens after a long process of arguing and arguing over the years. Americans – people! – have very different visions of what constitutes the common good and how to achieve it. We use politics to resolve those disagreements so that we can come to an acceptable (or acceptable) number. full) resolves our differences. When it comes to complaining about the politicization of an issue or event, it’s often an attempt to stop that process – a way to scream “shut up!” from some superficial moral background.

You often see this dynamic in the workplace following the frequent gun massacres in America. As a result, complaints about the easy availability of firearms quickly generated fierce resistance from conservatives that the problem is being “politicize” because the partisan advantage – never mind that public safety is one of the most basic functions of government. Indeed, such disasters are when politics is most needed: “by Glenn Beck”9/12 Projects“longing to return to the moment after 9/11 when America was united in rage against terrorist attackers. But the apolitical moment that is said to have led to torture, the invasion of Iraq and 20 years of war abroad. It was a disaster. A little more politicization would not be welcome at this time, but it could have helped. Similarly, politicization of the day. January 6 is a good thing and probably could not have been otherwise.

The irony of Graham and McCarthy’s remarks, of course, is that complaining about politicization is itself a political action. They didn’t really wish to have more in common – Lindsey Graham’s act of “more sadness than anger” its welcome is over years ago – but tried to portray the Democrats as callous and vile, and therefore unworthy of holding power.

They politicized January 6. You know what? That is politics.