I've been watching the activities in the House of Representatives today.
I must say that I find both sides lacking in oratorical skills.
I'm disturbed that both sides use terms like "holy" and "sacred" when talking about the Capitol building.
That implies a degree of divine benediction over the seat of our government. And that is dangerous. It ultimately leads to statements like "God is on our side" or "God has blessed America" as though the deity would only favor our country over any other.
But I'm particularly disturbed by the repeated tactics of the Republican speakers. They clearly were speaking from a script. They invoked "whataboutism". Over and over they referred to the Black Lives Matter protests, contrasting the reactions of Democrats to the rioting and looting in those events to their reaction to the action that took place in the Capitol last week.
To me, this is a classic case of false equivalency. Some of the BLM protests did spawn some more violent actions: rioting, vandalism, looting. To that extent, the attack on the Capitol and the BLM protests were similar.
They differ in one fundamental aspect, however. The BLM protests were happening (and still are happening) in response to a truth: a systemic abuse of power by police departments across the country. The abuse resulted in the deaths of black individuals at the hands of white police personnel. Rarely have the police been held accountable.
The protest at the Capitol was motivated by a lie: that there had been widespread voter fraud in the November 3 election, enough to steal the election from President Trump.
Comparing the two sets of events is, therefore, specious. Our representatives should know better, but they've learned from a master at sleight of hand.
Perhaps Godwin's Law may have to replace "what about Hitler" with "what about BLM protests" as the ultimate effort in a losing debate.
