46 Comments

I grew up in a family of urban liberal intellectuals, voted for Carter (the first time) still regard him to be earnest and good hearted, but inept and wrong-headed. It would impossible to say that of today's leftists. There is nothing good or commendable in them anymore. We have to adhere to our rules, but some very dark days are coming. I don't look for trouble, but if they end up coming for me or my family, I will take as many as I can with me

Expand full comment

Erick, Well documented and written. The only thing missing is what are we to do now? I know we can and will likely need to wait for the November election and see just how much crying out there is from the other side if Republicans actually do win significantly. Of course we need to make it from now to then. On the other hand, with so many on the left fully involved in lie and deceit, as you so accurately portrayed, with mostly peaceful meaning burn it down, how do we hold them to account? Frankly, they would need to lose so massively in 2022 that the Republicans could override any presidential veto.

How many times did Joe Biden say "the rule of law"? in that speech. I think at least twice. He is so far outside the "rule of law" as his nose should have stretched several feet. How many laws has he broken or refused to obey? He complains when states put voting laws he doesn't like...and he looks to rewrite the constitution so that he can enact his own laws to replace it.

We are in real trouble.

For the most part our politicians no longer believe they will ever give an account. It disturbed me greatly to hear Mr. Biden use God's name several times during the speech. I believe there is a commandment about using His name in Vain. God knows the intent of our hearts...and at this moment I do not see either Mr, Biden or Mr. Trump actually looking to what the Lord wants.

So how must we now live? What are we to think, say, and do?

A lot to ponder, and I look forward to your advice.

Expand full comment

YES!!

Expand full comment

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-histrionics-and-melodrama-around

I hope Glenn opens this up for non-subscribers. A long thoughtful and fact-packed analysis of J6.

His closing

What happened on January 6 was ugly and disturbing. But it was nowhere near an insurrection, a coup, or anything threatening in a fundamental or sustained way. That core truth — that it was a protest that turned into a three-hour riot killing nobody except four of the protesters — destroys its value. Only the false narrative that has been constructed over the last year and consecrated by today's inane festivities can convert this banal episode into some world-historic event that at once makes heroes out of those who were there to oppose it and justifies everything and anything done in the name of preventing its repetition.

Expand full comment

You can’t admit the election was legitimate while at the same time saying, “Jan 6 was not an insurrection” or “Jan 6 was not an attempted coup”. Why? Because if those who rioted at the capital on Jan 6 had been successful, Mr. Trump would still be president. And our process of free elections of our leaders would be forever destroyed. All in conflict with the actual outcome of the election.

Erick, it’s nifty how you decry ‘what-about-ism’ just prior to launching into half a page of it yourself (it’s your bread and butter). The truth is that January 6 is something Republicans should be deeply ashamed of. Especially those at the top with their greed obsessed manipulation of their gullible sheep through conservative TV “News” and talk radio.

Ashley Babbitt, as you say, is no martyr. In fact, she’s a victim. Her blood is on your own hands mister. Not old enough or wise enough to recognize the patterns coming from the right, she was sucked in by your (and those who came before you, i.e. Boortz, Rush, Sean) persuasive outrage and eloquent but deceptive reasoning. All for the sake of protecting the wealth of the few who can afford such elaborate and deceptive means of protection. I’m often embarrassed at how long it took me to recognize the same patterns. Your audience is full of such victims as Ashley. Many of whom are reading this right now.

Shame on you. For siding with the ones who would sacrifice the planet. For siding with those who feed on and oppress the weakest members of our society. Shame on you for even a single second of defending those who have become grotesquely wealthy beyond any sensible justification. (The top 1% of Americans have more wealth than the bottom 50%). All while tent communities grow even for working US citizens. And while America is the last civilized country on the planet with a “for profit” healthcare system. And while the US has the 4th highest poverty rate on the planet.

Shame on you for persuading your audience that Matthew 25:34-46 doesn’t apply to them. Shame on you for attempting to equate any previous riots from either side to what happened on Jan 6. There is no argument for equivalence that even comes close. This was the United States capital.

Shame on you for propagating a deceptively conciliatory (pacifying!) defense of January 6. This is the United States of America. It was an insurrection. It was an attempted coup. They were acting at the behest of Trump to destroy this country. Have no doubt, if they had been successful, it would have been the end of our country. The end of greatest country to ever be established on this planet. The end. That’s how history will view Jan 6. If they had been successful, Mr. Trump would still be president in spite of a legally administered election. That’s the very definition of an attempted coup. No mercy for them.

If they had been successful, Trump would still be president. And it would have been the end of the United States of America as a free country. That’s how you know it was an attempted coup.

Expand full comment

Hyperbole rarely holds up upon objective analysis. The great fallacy in your argument is that "if they had been successful, Trump would still be President". How so? Please explain. If what the protesters did was unlawful, and it was, how would their actions have ever resulted in Trump remaining in office. How?

And if you're a looking for the party of greed, lies, corruption and destruction, look no further than the Democrats who have destroyed more lives in this country than the U.S. has lost in all military conflicts dating back to the Revolutionary War, including more than 52 million aborted Americans since the Roe v. Wade and the utter destruction of the Black family starting with LBJ's so-called Great Society programs in the 1960s.

A nation that kills its own at that rate has no future, my friend, and support of those responsible lands you squarely on the wrong side of history.

Expand full comment

It was an attempted coup by virtue of the motivations of the rioters. We can only hope that cooler heads would have eventually prevailed, but that is irrelevant. Their sole motive that day was to keep Trump in office. As to your other point, there is clearly a current state of the Republican Party, despite any historical contradictions, to be the party of “me not we”. It’s survival of the fittest with you and predator vs prey. Law of the jungle is for jungle animals. We are humans. What party is it that still tries to convince the stupid that wealth will trickle down? Yeah go ahead and keep lying. The intelligent people you’ve tricked before are not being tricked again.

Expand full comment
Jan 8, 2022·edited Jan 8, 2022

Motivations and intentions don't equal results. A "coup" would never work in the United States, at least as it exists today. This was a relatively small band of miscreants that could have easily been thwarted by a better prepared security response. If Pelosi was truly concerned that Trump might go "nuclear" with China, then she and others responsible for making the call on security that day should have been better prepared. An objective independent mind would want to know why she was not. Don't you want to know what Pelosi was told and what her response was? Why can't we see the communications in that regard? And the FBI, the same agency that had co-opted 12 of the 18 individuals involved in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot, what did they know?

As far as your comment that the GOP is the party of me not we, honestly, you are making things up at this point, and that comment couldn't withstand the least bit of critical analysis. In fact, it's the Dems who are the divide and conquer party, using identity politics and worse, marxist tactics, to undermine the very fabric of this country, including the Constitution. Ultimately, the Dem party as it exists today will fail. Look around. It's already happening. The gospel of envy is not sustainable. Eventually you run out of other peoples' money.

Expand full comment

Why the scatter shots? Why the diversionary tactics? Answer the question. Which party still tries to sell trickle down economics?

Expand full comment

What you refer to as trickle down economics is in actuality economic stimulus, except to the extent that tax cuts aren't accompanied by a decrease in Federal spending, in which case it's a toss up, the outcome of which depends on several other economic inputs.

By the way, go back and read through our string of messages and add up the number of questions I put to you that you haven't answered. Hey, I get it. It's hard to defend the indefensible, but still, you should at least give it a go.

Expand full comment

Economic stimulus indeed. You humiliate yourself on the internet. Good day.

Expand full comment

Well said.

Expand full comment

Scottiaman, Jim asked that you please remove your nose from his you-know-what. I mean, he appreciates the compliment and everything, but yeah, a little too much ; )

Expand full comment

So truth AND originality are not your strong suits. That's ok. Everyone has their own set of strengths and virtues. But on a serious note, please read some common sense analysis and commentary by the likes of say Thomas Sowell, one of the greatest (and unfortunately least known) minds of our time. It might change your perspective a bit.

Expand full comment

Answer the question. Which party still tries to sell trickle down economics?

Expand full comment

Amen. Rich is 100% correct. Perfectly stated and I mean perfectly. No left wing diatribe. No trolling. It is the truth. People need to stop being gullible. Trump is Killian from "The Running Man" True GOP needs to come back. Why is everyone so beholden to Trump? It makes no sense. This is your leader? This is who you follow? Let this guy and his lies go.

Expand full comment

Crash - Rich asked that you please remove your nose from his you-know-what. I mean, he appreciates the compliment and everything, but yeah, a little too much ; )

Expand full comment

Im sure Rich can speak for himself. The GOP needs to remove their heads from Trump's you-know-what and see him for who and what he is.

Expand full comment

I could give 2 rats asses about Trump. Trump was a disrupter plain and simple. He was an outsider, and quite possibly the only one with the intestinal fortitude (cojones) to withstand 24/7 non-stop attacks from the Dems and their media, big tech, and now big corporate enablers. Yes, the Dems have co-opted the corporations too, so you can't use that tired refrain of the Republicans only being concerned about big corporations and not the little guy. The entire script has flipped. And Trump, he provided a glimpse of the depth of corruption in our Federal government. Indeed, there is a deep state, and now we know. He also put our adversaries AND allies on notice that the U.S. would not be trifled with or taken advantage of any longer. And despite his coarse and often times unnecessarily inflammatory rhetoric, I believe he showed what the U.S. is capable of if we get back to basics and reduce the role of Federal government. On balance, the results produced during the course his presidency, pre-pandemic of course, are empirical proof of the efficacy of his administration's policies. Be well and go with God.

Expand full comment

Calm down Mr Troll. And thanks for the Leftwing diatribe. Good to know Erick is reaching all sides.

Expand full comment

Know your enemy. I guess you haven't figured it out yet.

Expand full comment

I love how our beloved Gov here in Fla responded to this hyped up anniversary:

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is “Christmas” for Democrats and the mainstream media before vowing to pass on what he called the “nauseating” coverage.

“They are going to take this and milk this for anything they can to be able to smear anyone who ever supported Donald Trump​,” he added.

DeSantis predicted the coverage would be a “politicized Charlie Foxtrot,” using military slang for a chaotic situation.

Expand full comment

At the risk of sounding like a right-wing kook, I have a different view. I think some of the folks did the (extremely) wrong thing, but for the right reasons.

The U. S. Constituion (Article One, Section Four) reads "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

Multiple states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania among others, enacted changes to voting laws in contradiction to the legally-enacted laws of their states, which makes votes unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

I do not believe the election was stolen via rigged machines or malfeasance (though Sec. State Raffensberger has launched an investigation into credible allegations of illegal ballot harvesting.) But mass-mailed unsolicited ballots, which were not allowed under GA law but were instituted under the Covid-19 state of emergency certainly had the potential to tip the election (especially the 2 Senate seats) in direct defiance of the Constitution.

Could Ashley Babbit (and others) simply been woefully, incorrectly and mistakenly trying to fulfil the oath she took when she enlisted to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic"?

Expand full comment

Love it! Thank you for your insight...and sharing it!!

Expand full comment

There you go again, applying logic equally ❤

Expand full comment

Yep, that's why he is and will be successful. His desire to use his gifts to insert wisdom into mix is a service to our nation.

Expand full comment

A good friend of mine and I had a discussion the other day about the double standards of Democrats rioting violently and being called "mostly peaceful protesters", exercising their rights, and the claim that January 6th was a "violent insurrection and an attempted coup". She was defending the Capitol rioters based on "well, why should they be treated differently than the arsonists and rioters on the Left", who weren't punished for their actions. It's a hard question to answer...because they ALL should have been punished, and only those at the Capitol riot seem to be. All I could say was "If you thought that the Leftist rioters should be punished but the Capitol rioters should not be...then you have double standards also."

Expand full comment
Jan 6, 2022Liked by Erick-Woods Erickson

Words mean something, which is why so many are being redefined. "Immigrant," for instance, has replaced "illegal alien" and that drives me nuts because they do NOT mean the same thing. So I hate that the word "patriot" has been coopted! My first memory of this was hawkers selling cruises on Fox News, but it has since become an adopted moniker by many conservatives wishing to self-rightously elevate themselves above leftists. And IMO this contributed to what happened on January 6 because in their minds they weren't criminals, they were the Boston Tea Party circa 2021.

And Erick, GREAT job of pointing out the storming of the Wisconsin and Texas capitols. Frankly, I had forgotten those events, but it's nice to have them in my arsenal should I need to argue the point.

Expand full comment

"Frankly, I had forgotten those events..."

And that is the left's strategy - "history" consists of the last statement made by (person of choice). Actual history shows nasty bumps and bruises that accompany even well-intended actions - we ignore any of it to our peril.

God has no compunction exposing the failings of His People in Scripture. We should courageously face our ignoble failures alongside our victories in recorded history. We learn nothing from history lacking human failings. OTOH, we also learn nothing revising history to be nothing BUT failure.

Expand full comment

Well said! And to Erick's point, this is where Christians SHOULD differ from the secular; we believe in, and should seek out absolute truth rather than the relativism (i.e., "your" truth) that secularism has embraced. Those nasty "bumps and bruises" as you call them make history far more interesting because they're a study in human nature. My wife likes the Lowe's motto "Never stop improving." If we apply that to our lives and to our nation then by definition there will always be the ugly that was improved and the ugly that still requires improvement.

Expand full comment

The January 6th episode will not be put to rest until there is a full, fair and impartial investigation into what went down that day versus the sham proceedings led by the Queen of Sham, Nancy Pelosi. Many crucial facts and unanswered questions. Why were so-called protesters allowed in on the Senate side of the House and shown around like tourists? Ditto on the House side. Yes, windows and doors were breached, but I've seen videos of police in full riot gear on the steps of the Capitol standing down and allowing rioters to pass right by them. Ditto once inside - video of Capitol Police officers literally telling the rioters were to go to access the House chamber. And what about the FBI and CIAs role. Clearly, they had intel regarding the potential for malicious acts, yet nothing was done to prevent them. Why? As with your repeated assertions that Trump "lied" about the election results when anyone with common sense knows that there were irregularities surrounding mail-in / absentee ballots in key battle-ground states, January 6th will not be put to rest until the fullness of truth sees the light of day.

Expand full comment

I can't help but wonder if any of the police that stood down to those people iwere were simply fed up with defunding police and officials not having their backs for so long? President Trump supported them all he was able to. But by and large, police have been demonized by elected officials and the media. I can understand having a human moment of "F it"

Expand full comment

Interesting perspective Erick. Serious question - is there any truth to the video tape currently being reviewed by Raffensberger. 240 people paid to harvest ballots between Nov 3rd and the run-off? He’s going to be on with John Fredericks for an hour to discuss from what I understand.

Expand full comment
author

Yes there appears to be. But it really does depend on how they harvested the ballots in Georgia. There's some real nuance in the law related to ballot handling. I'm keeping my eye on it.

Expand full comment

Erick, please do!! We appreciate your help keeping track. Cuz, we have other jobs! Its nearly impossible to keep up!

Expand full comment

Please do Erick. The 2020 election did have numerous anomalies. Whether they amounted to the level of flipping an election is above my pay grade, but I take both sides with a grain of salt. My antenna’s up because of what I’m experiencing on the clinical guideline side as it relates to Covid. Love my country, but don’t trust my government. Regardless of which side has the gavel…

Expand full comment

Thank you, Joe, and thanks Erick for providing some perspective and push-back against the MSM's attempt to help the democrats this November. I've never questioned an election's results in my life before except for 2020's. My guy's won and lost and I've shrugged and lived with it. 2020 was different. That's why law abiding conservatives went to Washington to protest, all legal and an appropriate thing to do. Conservatives don't do things like that unless they really, sincerely believe there was a problem.

The break-in to the Capitol was, of course, tragic and ridiculous, but fair and thinking people know the huge majority of legal protesters that day did not take part in that incursion. Perhaps no one pays attention to progressives storming capitals because we've been conditioned to expect that kind of silliness from them. Probably half of them are hired protestors and do it for a living. Conservatives only protest when we know in our gut something was wrong.

Expand full comment

Very well stated!

Expand full comment

Ronald Reagan could never win a primary in today's Republican Party. He wasn't bat-s**t crazy enough. "People Are Stupid"

Expand full comment

I certainly Do Not condone Jan. 6, as a matter of fact it embaresses me. I am also sick of hearing about it. But some how I cannot get passed the fact that They burned a church

Expand full comment

What reforms are talked about for The Electoral College?

Ted Cruz and others wanted a commission to investigate the claims of ballot stuffing. We didn’t get it. That with the Democrats wanting to let anyone, citizen or not, dead or alive, vote makes one think that the past election was stolen. People no longer have faith in their government. The cherry on the cake is the hypocrisy of the elites with Covid restrictions.

Expand full comment

You're right about no faith in government!

Expand full comment