Two weeks after the Insurrection, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy decided to blame everyone for the coup that killed five people and injured over 50 police officers. It didn’t matter whether you attended the riot at the Capitol or not. The substance of your position on the election doesn’t matter. If you disagreed with anything Trump did during his term, McCarthy believes that you bear some responsibility for those deaths. Putting aside the utter idiocy and dishonesty of McCarthy, I want to talk about the racist purpose of his comments.
When I think about the unmitigated gall it takes to blame everyone for the actions of the Trump-supporting, White supremacist traitors that violently stormed the Capitol, the Whiteness of the traitors sticks firmly in my mind. Would Kevin McCarthy blame all of America for a riot centered around police brutality? Of course not. He would blame the (Black and Brown) people who oppose his agenda. But in this case, blaming everyone dilutes the responsibility such that White people still come out smelling relatively like roses. Whiteness will not face any scrutiny for the insurrection. Meanwhile, Blackness faces endless scrutiny merely for existing.
There was a time when one could have reasonably believed that Republicans were, at least on the surface, the party of “personal responsibility.” Not now. That belief has no present tether to reality because the GOP itself has no tether to present reality. Republicans and Trump has cultivated and watered rising White supremacy stemming from White economic anxiety and right-wing conspiracy theories for decades. Whether it’s “George Tiller the Baby Killer,” Obama birtherism, or QAnon, the American Right has exhibited no shyness in consummating a relationship with outlandish and dangerous theories in pursuit of power and increased profits. And so we arrive to this moment. The Right has sh*t its proverbial bed and can’t stand the smell. Rather than reflect inward and take ownership of their dangerous proclivities for power, the Right has instead chosen a strategy near and dear to their hearts: twisting the truth through gaslighting and ignorance of the facts. And like their past attempts, this gaslighting will work to some degree.
I am not surprised at McCarthy’s gaslighting attempt. I am also not surprised that his comments received far less scrutiny than they deserved. But it bears repeating that this is the way of the G(aslighting) Ole Party. Whatever it takes to protect their power. Whatever it takes to protect their money. Whatever it takes to protect right wing White supremacy.