Legitimate political discourse vs democracy in America

There are several ways of denigrating the political process, and unfortunately, we have all become experts about it as we have been victims of a disgraceful display of mediocrity running the highest institutions of the country. Even in this dire scenario, though, the latest Republican National Committee statement on the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riots transcends basic common sense and amounts to outright lunacy.?

According to the Committee, the riots that jeopardized American democracy were “legitimate political discourse”, and those arrested are “political prisoners”. Therefore, the republican committee ended up censuring the two-party members contributing to some form of accountability, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.?

Even Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has broken apart of this interpretation and has called the January 6, 2021 events, as they were: “a violent insurrection”.?

There’s only one bright side of this imbroglio. Republican lawmakers can’t possibly put the party in a winning position come 2024 under the idea that the January 6, 2021, attempted coup was “legitimate political discourse”. Such position would place the GOP on the side of defending violence as a political program. It would, in fact, imply a defense of overturning American democracy.

So, the table is set. The GOP must decide whether to go back to their senses, condemn the riot unequivocally and present a political platform leaving Trump behind, or align with people like Peter Thiel –the libertarian worth $2.6 billion- who just stepped down from the board of Meta to focus on electing Trump-aligned candidates. Thiel wrote in 2009 that he “no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”.

Or the GOP can also align with Erik Prince, “the founder of Blackwater who in 2018 joined a venture to use undercover agents to infiltrate progressive groups, Democratic campaigns and other opponents of Trump” as recently reported.?

The GOP may have a third alternative: split their inner force at least in two, and offer the electorate a decent, conservative, truly American political option. A platform offering a real “legitimate political discourse”. Because the current offer would be ridiculous if it wasn’t what it really is: a threat to American democracy.?