Jim Jordan is at it again
If Donald Trump had inspired the drooling cretins who follow him to burn down your house, Jim Jordan’s principal complaint would be to wonder why there weren’t enough firefighters to put it out. Before I give you enough time to suppose that might be hyperbole, that’s exactly what he did when he suggested that the January 6th insurrection was Nancy Pelosi’s fault because the Capitol was inadequately defended.
But the analogy is even more outrageous than that, proving the hyperbole was a bridge not far enough. Because, to continue with the analogy, Jordan was also one of the arsonists. You see, one of the reasons the Capitol was attacked in the first place was because grossly incompetent and irresponsible people just like Jordan supported the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. And because Jordan is a child with a yellow tie and no jacket he is going to blame the most recent person who hurt him. Nancy Pelosi vetoed his membership on the January 6th committee, for much the same reason Vincent Bugliosi kept Charles Manson off the jury. You don’t put criminals in charge of committees making judgments about their crimes.
But Jordan wasn’t content to stop there. In an orgiastic meltdown of whataboutisms Jordan ranted that because America is experiencing mild inflation (exactly what you’d expect in an economy coming out of a pandemic) there should be no inquiry into why the Capitol was attacked by a mob. You see, we can’t talk about anything else until we fix certain problems, according to Jordan’s agenda. Well if that’s true then why did he volunteer to be on the committee in the first place? As a man who represents himself as having a conscience about the good of the people, he surely would be wasting his time being on that committee, would he not?
But if Jordan is really so upset that the Speaker turned him down for the committee, maybe he should blame himself and his fellow Republicans for voting against the bipartisan committee. The reason Nancy Pelosi is calling a select committee is because Republicans blew their chance to put anyone they wanted on a bipartisan one.
You don’t have to go very far or work very hard to demonstrate what a bloviating buffoon Jim Jordan is. Jordan says he was shocked — shocked! — at how inadequate security was. He wasn’t shocked by the broken windows or assaulted police officers, not by the gallows erected to hang the Vice President, not by the fact that Trump dragged his feet about calling in the National Guard, but because Nancy Pelosi didn’t put more DC police around the Capitol. (And let’s face it, brothers and sisters, it wouldn’t matter what she did. It wouldn’t have been enough.)
But the smallest intellectual effort is too much for the Trump-licking morons who believe him, and those are the ones Jim Jordan is really speaking to. Jordan is perfectly aware that he’s full of crap, and it makes no difference to him. Stupid people still vote, and he reserves his line of Republican horseshit exclusively for them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.