John Merrow, like millions of Americans, was appalled when the Republican National Committee attacked Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the House Committee investigating the insurrection of January 6. He was reminded of the film Spartacus.
He wrote:
In the 1960 movie “Spartacus,” the Roman Army puts down a slave revolt. The Commander of Italy offers to pardon thousands of slaves from crucifixion if they will identify Spartacus, the leader of the revolt. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) stands to give himself up, but as he says, “I am Spartacus,” so does another slave (Tony Curtis), followed by first one and then another. Eventually all the slaves are shouting proudly and defiantly “I am Spartacus.” It is a memorable display of heroism and solidarity.
Today, to declare “I am Spartacus” is to stand with those who are being wrongly accused or persecuted, no matter the cost.
If ever there was a moment for traditional Republicans to stand and declare “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” it is now.
Which brings us to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, two Republican members of the House of Representatives who were recently censured by the Republican National Committee “for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.” The resolution, passed overwhelmingly by voice vote of the RNC’s 168 members, also describes the January 6th insurrection as “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
It hasn’t happened. No Republican is upset enough about the direction of their party to stand and declare, “Enough.” No elected Republican has had the courage to declare that he or she will no longer align with the GOP until it comes to its senses.
Twitter ‘outrage’ is no substitute for political courage, but that’s pretty much all we’ve gotten.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a tweet, “It’s a sad day for my party—and the country—when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.”
Former Massachusetts governor and current Utah Senator Mitt Romney also turned to Twitter: “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”
Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse also Tweeted: “January 6th was not ‘legitimate political discourse’ and I’ll say it again: It was shameful mob violence to disrupt a constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress to affirm the peaceful transfer of power.”
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who is not running for re-election, issued a statement through his PR team: “The Governor commends anyone who is willing to step forward and tell the truth, and disagrees with this vote. He has been clear that the January 6th riot was a violent insurrection and a sad day for democracy.”
No strong words from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and even retiring GOP Senators like Bob Portman of Ohio and Richard Burr of North Carolina have been quiet.
In the film, the defiant slaves pay dearly for their act of courage. Because Spartacus was not identified, the Roman leader crucifies nearly all of the slaves, saving two to battle to the death for the amusement of Roman citizens (with the victor then to be crucified).
The slave leader, Spartacus, learned an important lesson from what had happened: “When just one man says ‘No, I won’t,’ Rome begins to fear. And we were tens of thousands who said ‘No,’ and that was the wonder of it.”
While no Republican would be literally crucified for publicly declaring “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” Fox News and other right wing voices would excoriate the defiant. However, it would not take ‘tens of thousands’ to halt the downward spiral the Republican Party has taken under Donald Trump. If enough Republicans had the courage to declare “I am Liz Cheney. I am Adam Kinzinger,” they might very well emerge strong enough to rebuild the Grand Old Party.
Today’s Republicans and the slaves of “Spartacus” differ in two crucial respects. The brave slaves in the film are being held in slavery against their will. Today’s gutless Republicans have chosen to be slaves. Their bondage is voluntary!
Since Merrow wrote this post, Senator Mitch McConnell criticized the Republican National Committee for censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the work of the Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. McConnell did not agree with the RNC that the attack on the seat of the Government was “legitimate political discourse.” McConnell said it was “a violent insurrection.” Anyone who was in the Capitol at the time was running for their lives to a secure hiding place. Not a sign of legitimate political discourse.
The members of the RNC are sniveling cowards.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just read a piece in The NY Times about the massive grifting taking place with the Trump organization. Perhaps the worst part of this profit from false celebrity is that there are so many of means who are willing to contribute. Looking back it is easy to see through the behavior of Republicans such as Newt Gingrich that this was the true soul of the Republican Party. While people of principal stand to call them out, the majority of the party simply refuse to acknowledge the concept of ethics much less the existence of the law. When I read the recent post on the misapplication of RICO standards to convict teachers in Atlanta, I couldn’t help but think of the scores of politicians brazenly breaking the law in plain sight without recourse. Perhaps the greatest threat to our republic is the overwhelming number of followers who embolden this brutal pyramid scheme. The political hellscape that now exists in our country is the result of the embrace of politics as a growth industry. It is the past political behavior of the Republicans who are now standing against Trump that laid the foundation for this shameless grift from Liz Cheney to The Lincoln Project. We will not get past this political dystopia until all of the politicians, both Republican and Democrat, move from political gamesmanship to a renewal of representative government. I’m not holding my breath.
Senator Romney had his opportunity, teased everyone, and then when silent. No surprise, there was “Romney-care” before there was “Obama-care” and where was his support of the concept then.
As for the rest of the GOP – this COULD be their Spartacus moment. It won’t be – – – but PLEASE Democrats, when campaigns begin CALL THEM OUT FOR IT.
More and more of their constituents do not want to be affiliated with the grotesque and illegal behavior of the exPres. CALL OUT their GOP candidates or not denouncing that, for censuring their own party who called January 6 normal, and are saying nothing. (PLEASE AFT and NEA if you are reading this – your campaign too)!
(P.S. for all the pop culture folks out there (can’t resist) – Spartacus moment well replicated in “Rudy” (Notre Dame football, not the ex NY mayor) which was well replicated in an episode of “The Newsroom!”
I should have been a right-wing Republican. Then all I’d have to do is say stuff like “January 6 was not legitimate political discourse” or “Joe Biden won the election fair and square” and I’d be regaled as a hero.
This.
Flerp!,
There are probably folks who tell their children and grandchildren that the little boy who said that the emperor had no clothes was just some kid saying a few words, and the entire story is a waste of time.
Probably a 6 year old could explain to both of you why saying the MOST MUNDANE thing – when that MOST MUNDANE thing happens to be true and everyone else feels threatened into lying and pushing a false reality – can be a notable thing. Something notable enough to write a story about that children have read for hundreds of years.
I hope the only children you know weren’t raised by cynical parents who taught them that the boy who told the Emperor he had no clothes did nothing worth mentioning.
If it was not worth mentioning, why can’t so many other people bring themselves to say it and instead go overboard to attack those who do? And I mean some people on this very thread.
Sorry, I don’t follow your point.
Because your post belittles something as if it is so easy that anyone could do it. You would have done it if you were a prominent Republican politician. What’s the big deal?
Anyone could have done what the little boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes story did, but they didn’t.
I can just hear some arrogant kid you are reading the story to telling you “I should have lived in that kingdom. Then all I’d have to do is say stuff like “the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes” and I’d be treated like a hero.”
Just like you presume it’s no big deal since you could easily do it yourself.
Your posts don’t reveal you as a person devoted to standing up for what is true instead of pushing false narratives, but I will not argue with your own self-image. It is your truth and you know best.
I’m making a little joke. I can say confidently that my influence on the world has been dramatically less pernicious than Liz Cheney’s has been. Liz Cheney says January 6 was bad and that Joe Biden was fairly elected. I say the same things. But she’s a right-wing Republican, so she’s brave and heroic. I’m a moderate/liberal democrat, but according to you and others in the comments here, I’m a racist and a right-winger. Maybe if I actually were a right-wing Republican, I could say things like Liz Cheney does and be considered brave and heroic.
FLERP!,
When Liz Cheney says things that are racist and right wing, she gets a lot of criticism here.
When you say things that stand up for truth and honesty, you get positive comments just like Liz Cheney does.
I don’t know why you would misrepresent what happens here. Despite your innuendo, I haven’t seen anyone here presenting Liz Cheney as anything other than what she is.
Someone who is standing up against a lot of pressure by people who want her to lie and saying the truth.
Whenever you do that, you get positive comments, regardless if you are a right or left winger (I have no idea whether you are a right wing Republican or not).
I didn’t hear your opinion on whether what Liz Cheney did was worth noting. But the fact that so many supposedly “moderate” Republicans are afraid to stand up for her or the truth is undoubtedly because what she did is quite difficult. For a Republican.
It’s easy to criticize Putin if you live in the US. Not so easy if you live in Russia or if you are a troll masquerading as a progressive who believes the real danger to the progressive movement are the democrats and not those trying to disenfranchise folks and end democracy.
I don’t always agree with you, but I appreciate your speaking up. Sometimes it becomes an echo chamber in here, in which it is really hard to hear any other voices. I very seldom agree with Liz Cheney, but I appreciate her standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law.
Thx.
You folks really need to stop and consider how it is you’ve ended up cheering on so many neocon war-mongering Republicans. When I was a liberal, the Democrats were the anti-war party and cavorting with the likes of the Bushes and Cheneys was unthinkable.
But then along came the Orange One and suddenly saying “Orange Man Bad” makes for instant redemption. I wonder if that was intentional. And I wonder if there is a connection between that and the fact that we are now baiting the bear into WWIII, which our “intelligence” (sic) sources (anonymous as always, of course) tell us is starting next week?
I wonder if there’s a reason Clinton (the candidate who wanted a no-fly zone over Syria – a guaranteed provocation of Russia) deliberately promoted the Orange Man (https://www.salon.com/2016/11/09/the-hillary-clinton-campaign-intentionally-created-donald-trump-with-its-pied-piper-strategy/)? I wonder if fear and hatred of the Orange Man was deliberately flamed to make mass-murdering war-mongering right-wingers suddenly seem reasonable? I wonder if high level government officials, at the behest of companies like Raytheon and Northrup-Grumman, are colluding with the media to promote unsourced, evidence-free pro-war narratives that benefit their bottom lines?
Nah, couldn’t be.
Could it be folks see Putin’s troops on the border where he has been waging a war of attrition since his 2014 invasion of Crimea has students of history conjuring images of Hitler in the Sudetenland?
Roy,you miss the point. If we speak ill of Putin’s troops on the Ukrainian border, then it’s our fault if he invades Ukraine. It’s always our fault. Never Putin’s. If I recall correctly, he said the dissolution of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century. War hawks think that Stalin and the KGB were villains and good riddance to the USSR. I have read a lot about the USSR. I celebrated when the Wall came down in Berlin and the USSR collapsed. I was in Warsaw as the Wall was breached. It was one of the best days of my life.
You folks? There you go again making blanket accusations. The article points out that things are so bad within the GOP that even right wing conservatives like Cheney and Kinzinger are appalled at the direction of their party, a death cult. Kinzinger and Cheney voted with Trump 93 percent and 90 percent of the time but I guess they have to be given some credit that they are standing up to Trump and most of the GOP. However, I would not vote for those 2 or people like them since they are opposed to anything resembling a progressive agenda. The GOP has been a regressive, libertarian and right wing so-called party for a very long time. The party that was against Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the ACA and any other social programs that help ordinary Americans.
How the heck are we baiting the bear. The Russians are massing troops around the Ukraine and that’s our fault?! Putin is to be blamed for trying to turn the Ukraine into a subservient client state by the use of military force. How dare Ukraine be an independent nation.
Don’t know how you do it, Joe. I’ve been reading an interesting book on the history of, as the author terms it, conspiracism in American history. The kind of stuff spewed here and the type of people who do so actually are part of an American tradition that goes back two centuries. Every age seems to have them and they go in waves, reaching their heights usually during economic swings. They’ve morphed into a variety of kooky clusters over the years that defy traditional right-left political spectrum definitions. And they come from the weirdest of places, usually relying on the same sources of conspiracism they cite as “authorities” or “proof.” They “know” things that can never be refuted by experience or facts; they just know them! Two excerpts from post WWII history have eerie parallels to our resident commentator:
“During the war, pro-Nazi conspiracists held fast to the view that Germany was the victim of a Jewish plot to trick Britain and America into waging war against it, destroying not just Germany but ultimately the United States as well.” And this one, discounting the Nuremberg Trials because “Germans who were doing nothing else but allowing their rulers to do what they did.” We have learned this commentator is of the same ilk, spinning tales and delusions. Occasionally the views line up with some semblance of reality, but like a broken clock, it’s more a matter of coincidence, but it releases pent up explosions of, “I told you so!”
GregB,
That is EXACTLY why I feel I can’t ignore when dienne77 posts and I think that Diane Ravitch should consider the danger when people who just spew right wing propaganda are presented as honest commenters.
dienne77 doesn’t give honest criticism of lots of politicians. She ONLY attacks the democrats and mainly whenever the subject is anything horrific that the Republicans or Putin is doing.
If you read dienne77’s posts carefully, she will not give ANY specific criticism of Putin or Trump — instead she directs false attacks on those who offer evidence-based criticism about anything Trump or Putin do.
And at worst, if Trump or Putin do anything wrong, it is always because the Democrats made him do it.
The underlying assumption of every post is that if the democrats would disappear, then Putin and Trump would achieve something good. And you are right that the parallels to those who blamed the Jews are very similar.
These people have grown in power, just like they did during the pre-Nazi era. They were ignored, but the Nazis could never have gained power without the loud voices of other folks excusing them and blaming some scapegoat that revealed their own extreme hate and prejudices.
There seem to be some folks who hate the Democrats the way some Germans hated the Jews, and those Germans would deny that they supported the Nazis, but clearly those folks were not displeased that the empowerment of the Nazis would destroy those who they viewed as their “real” enemies.
I have no doubt that certain people see democrats as the “real” enemy, and while they deny supporting Republicans, they do look favorably on the idea that the Republicans could totally destroy their “real” enemy, the Dems.
Joe, you speak for me.
Yes, I have noticed that NATO and the USA have surrounded Ukraine with more than 100,000 troops and have blockaded the sea ports. Oh, what, wait! That’s Russian troops? Must be our fault.
Caitlin Johnstone:
“The fact that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans prefer to be part of Russia is a settled matter beyond dispute.”
Case done. Crimea is all good! Once again, Putin helps another country the way Caitlin Johnstone so admires that he is always willing to do.
In case you think I am exaggerating:
“Consider the possibility that all the Russia hysteria we’ve been fed the last few years was carefully rolled out to manufacture consent for the exact escalations against Russia that we’re seeing today, and all the framing of Russia as the hostile aggressor has been ass backwards.”
The US is the aggressor against Russia!
The GOP is made up of opportunists.
As is the Democrat Party.
In the fantasy I have of returning to teach high school government, the first day’s homework assignment would be to read Hans Christian Anderson’s The Emperor’s New Clothes and the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Then we’d have a day or two of discussion as we looked through the daily newspaper before moving on to the substance of the class. These two stories inform every aspect of politics and governing, as this post demonstrates.
I just posted above before I read this. I absolutely thought of the Emperor’s New Clothes when our resident fascism-enabler whined that someone who says the truth in a sea of lies should be ignored because what they said was just not very important.
The truth isn’t very important to them.
It’s good to be on the same page. Great minds… 🧐
Sounds like a CRT class! Beware! 😉
Dastardly Danes and Greeks! 🥸