The January 6th Republican Litmus Test

It's not really surprising that the Babylon Bee predicted that everyday was going to be Jan 6th day back in August 2021 and now the New York Times has even declared it so. CNN will also be broadcasting live from the Capital Building on Jan 6th which will no doubt escalate their incessant obsession with Donald Trump as we head into the midterms this year.

Here we have this opinion piece from CNN that is framing what is going to be a litmus test for any Republican running for public office and without a doubt this is what the midterms are going to be all about as well as any Republican running for President in 2024.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/opinions/january-6-insurrection-question-obeidallah/index.html

The question is: "Do you stand with the United States or do you stand with the terrorists?"

The article states, "To be clear, framing the question to include the word "terrorists" is accurate, given that FBI Director Christopher Wray described the Capitol riot as "domestic terrorism" in Senate testimony. The federal statute defining domestic terrorism also backs this up, since the events of January 6 involved "acts dangerous to human life" that were intended "to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."

If you want to call the rioters/protesters on Jan 6th domestic terrorists that's fine with me. Just about every Republican (including President Trump) condemned the riot immediately so hasn't the question already been answered? I think it’s pretty obvious the real question that is being asked is, "Do you support Trump and/or his claim that the election was stolen?" However I’ll leave that aside for now.

As with most brilliant ideas that come from the left, this one is going to back fire on the Democrats. If we are going to stick by this definition of domestic terrorism then any time a political protest that turns into a riot occurs we are going to have to ask, "Were there acts dangerous to human life?" and "Were the rioters trying to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion?" Perhaps we should go back in time and analyze some of the rioting by Black Lives Matter or Antifa and see if they fit the definition of domestic terrorism and if they do then ask Democrats if they stand with terrorists.

The bottom line is every political protest that turns violent is going to be under the microscope of this definition of domestic terrorism. If the Democrats want to apply it to Jan 6th and then force every single Republican candidate to answer whether or not they stand with the US or terrorism then any future protest gone violent whether its in the name of systemic racism, pro-choice or any other protest that seeks to influence the policy of the government is going to have to be deemed terrorism and the Democrats and/or Republicans are going to have to be asked if they stand with the US or with terrorism.