Noonan: "The Courage Of January 6th Witness Cassidy Hutchinson"

Meh.

   I'll be right up front: I doubt Hutchinson's tales. But, then, I don't want them to be true. Because if they're true, then I'm an idiot. Oh and: the country is even more screwed than we thought we were. So there's that too.

   Also, her story certainly seems like the latest in the long list of breathless, implausible lies that have periodically been pushed into the news by the rabid resisterators.

   Don't get me wrong: she's no Christine Blasey Ford--she's not obviously and overtly nuts. My guess is that her stories have some grounding in truth, but not a lot. Or not enough, anyway. Some of what she said is consistent with things we already know. Some have already been refuted. More refutations are allegedly on the way. It was mostly hearsay. And some of the most important bits were hearsay about interpretations and representations of Trump's words and actions--e.g. the tale of the metal-detectors. The gut-wrenching awfulness of that story depends largely on second-hand reconstructions of Trump's exact words, tone, demeanor, etc. What he said may have been terrible--or may have been, y'know, ordinarily trumpian bad/stupid. 

   And, admittedly, I'm sick of the credulous anti-Trumpers who believe every stupid-ass story about Trump's depravity that comes down the pike. They collect them like prizes. Even the refuted ones never go away. Even Russiagate survives in their minds. They lovingly build shrines to their own delusional hatred of the guy. They've been wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong...and still they never learn--or refuse to. 

   But then, suddenly, they were right.

   And that burns me up.

   Trump lost his shit after the election. He made them right. They misinterpreted and lied about him over and over again...and then he lost his shit and made them right. Dumbass. Of course they think they saw something in him all along. Which is possible but not the most likely thing, according to me. But truth has a justification all its own...

   Now Cheney and company, after three previous fake-ass investigations aimed at destroying the bad Orange Man once and for all, are at it again, 1.5 years after the election. Whereas BLM/Antifa rioters went free in their thousands after breaking and burning and murdering their way across city after city, the Capitol rioters are being prosecuted far beyond the full extent of the law. And the party and faction that enthusiastically endorsed and promoted that terrorism now prosecutes its vendetta against Trump, too. They hate him with such rage that they will never stop until they've convinced themselves that they were right all along--and have driven him and his family into the ground. They are part of the totalitarian left now, doing their part to neutralize the man who has, thus far, been most effective in opposing that totalitarian force.

   None of which means that I don't think that Trump fucked up monumentally. Nor that I'm sure he didn't do even worse than we knew. Nor that I've changed my mind about my longstanding belief that a guy like that should never have been allowed within a million miles of the Oval Office... Because I haven't. 

   Though, boy, he sure was a good President in a lot of ways...

   In broad brush strokes, what it comes down to is this: I think the contemporary left--of which the Democrats are an enthusiastic and integral part--is doing critical and possibly mortal damage to the country, and shows no signs of stopping. They've lost their collective fucking mind. They are not a normal political party. They are an antirationalist apocalyptic suicide cult that has taken over all our institutions. And, though I never wanted Trump in office and don't want him back, I often see their rabid efforts to eviscerate him as continuous with their efforts to eviscerate the nation itself. Though, of course, one could have Cheney-like hatred of Trump for patriotic reasons. Which is why Cheney has Cheney-like hatred of him. But it's not why most leftists do... 

   At any rate, I rarely think this way, but, for the time being and for the next four months, it's all about the midterms. Even though I do want to know the truth, and I do want the higher aspirations of the Presidency and the nation defended, right now winning in November is--hard for me to admit--more important. And it also matters that the faction trying--in some sense of 'trying'--to run down the truth--in some sense of  'run down'--is even crazier and more dangerous than Trump. And it as a matter of principle does not care about truth. So there's that...

   Anyway.

   There's little reason to believe the worst parts of Hutchinson's stories. If they're corroborated, so be it. But, by induction, I doubt they will be. Though, if they are, then the conservatives currently fawning over her--Noonan, McCarthy, French and the rest--will be right about her place in history. If I'm right, she'll go the way of Michael Avenatti, CBF, Jeffrey Goldberg, Christopher Steele and the rest.