Bill Marvel: Exeunt Iago?

Last Wednesday afternoon, I was engrossed in the Florida politics of 156 years ago until my old French professor emailed a reference to a display of "national anarchy" in Washington. In the blessed absence of either a television or radio, and with my daily newspaper perennially arriving a day or two late, I had no idea that another conspicuous revolt against government authority might be brewing, or why. Insurgent behavior has been so common over the past four years, especially since the end of May, that I doubted I could get very exercised over yet another aggravating display of ideological obsession. 

Nothing has disturbed me so much in years as the scene of a mob storming our Capitol, yet I'm not certain just why. "Protesters" have been attacking government buildings for more than seven months, after all, and assaulting their defenders with everything from slingshots and rocks to Molotov cocktails and mortar-grade fireworks. Even the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project, which betrays a slightly liberal bias, reports statistics revealing that more than one in every 19 of last year's 10,600 protests turned violent. 

The riots and more organized violence of last year amounted to assaults on our government, too. The Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol may have been made more alarming and infuriating by the blunt imagery of a mob targeting the very heart of our democracy. Not only were they attacking the edifice that houses our government, but the elective process without which it cannot survive. 

My own outrage did not extend to the electoral challenge that the protesters came to support. That was perfectly legitimate, albeit altogether unwarranted: Democrats Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Barbara Boxer similarly challenged George W. Bush's electoral tally 16 years before — to the day — and their effort failed as handily and as deservedly as this one did. What made the spectacle so dismaying was the refusal to allow completion of a process previously agreed upon, and accept the result. In this the mob disgraced itself by imitating the losers of 2016, whose more militant provocateurs began expressing their frustration through vandalism and street violence during Trump's inauguration. 

Trump supporters had cause to resent partisan decisions that helped Democratic candidates, but how could they credit fraud widespread enough to decide the election when even most Republicans denied it? The answer appeared in the few minutes of CNN coverage I watched Wednesday. Brazenly biased commentators openly preached politics, condescendingly dictating the interpretation viewers should take rather than narrating events as they occurred. Their sneering denunciations of the Trump crowd seemed justified, this time, but the CNN clips I've seen since 2016 have usually echoed such Resistance rhetoric even when it was extremely doubtful. 

If such propagandists reflect the major news outlets in this nation, is it any wonder that the millions of Americans they so publicly disdain mistrust the media enough to suspect a conspiracy against their champion? CNN and its ilk have subliminally abetted an actual coup attempt for four years now, showcasing Democrats in their relentless search for an excuse to depose a duly elected president, and that political theater is not over yet. Even now the Wicked Witch of the West is preparing to scramble her flying monkeys for one last raid — not because it will do any good, but because she (and they) might look good doing it. 

Self-righteous indignation is the basic ammunition in a struggle between political extremes, and any inclination to consider an enemy's grievances amounts to a fatal weakness. Donald Trump will be gone less than 200 hours after this column appears in print, and good riddance, but the departure of a perceived villain will bring no peace while sanctimony still rules.

William Marvel lives in South Conway.