So the Senate Republicans blocked an independent, bipartisan commission to study the attack on American democracy of January 6th. Yet another shocking non-surprise, from a party which keeps plumbing new depths in this department. (My friend M was right to call the past president "the symptom": while a professional attention hog, he's part of a far larger problem.) The short of it: congressional Republicans don't want to be victims the next time their rabble attacks, whether in primaries or the next time there's an election whose results the red hats refuse to accept. The long of it: they're reconciled to their rabble's attacking everyone else, abetting it - indeed, after this cowardly vote, encouraging it. To put it mildly, democracy demands more public mindedness than this.
