EDITORIAL: The plan to overthrow the US government continues apace

There is a divide between the major political parties in the United States as to the events of Jan. 6, 2021. While those on the left — and anyone who watched it unfold live on television — call the insurrection by its rightful name, there are many on the right who steadfastly refuse to label it as such.

To be clear: Not all Republicans believe that those who invaded the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 were tourists exercising their rights, or false-flag antifa, or undercover FBI agents. Not all of them believe the 2020 election was stolen. But a lot of them say they do.

We’re not sure how many, but after more than 1,000 arrests and 300 convictions among that day’s attendees — along with 91 felony charges against the insurrection’s ringleader, former President Donald Trump — we know there are fewer of them every day.

The problem now is that many of the believers of the Big Lie currently hold elected office, and one of them is likely to be named Speaker of the House of Representatives.

We’re talking about Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Trump’s choice for speaker, and we wish we could say that the worst thing about him is that he voted to overturn the 2020 election, but the fact is that his opponent in the speaker race, House Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), also voted to overturn the 2020 election. The only real daylight between them is that one has a heavy disdain for the federal government of which he is a part, while the other actively wants to tear the whole thing down.

A pivotal concern in this election among House members is the thing that ultimately got the previous speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ousted, namely that he reached across the aisle to create bipartisan legislation that would help avoid avoid a government shutdown — which, it should be noted, was orchestrated by a faction of his own party.

McCarthy, by the way, also voted to overturn the 2020 election.

The House is scheduled to vote for a new speaker on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, just a few days after Hamas staged a massive invasion of Israel, Republicans in the Senate have stalled the federal government to the point that we have no US ambassador to Israel — or Egypt, or Oman, or Kuwait — courtesy of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has used his position to block nominees to those posts because he wants more information on COVID. To his credit, Sen. Paul did not vote to overturn the 2020 election. But Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has blocked more than 300 military promotions for months, did.

Maybe that’s why so many Republicans don’t believe that Jan. 6 was an insurrection: because the real insurrection is happening now.