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Friday
The MAGA members of the House appear to be suffering from indictment envy and impeachment envy, so much so that they may shut down the government if Speaker McCarthy doesn’t start proceedings against President Biden. Think of them as the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, who at one point declares, “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.”
Of course, they’ve been like this for a while. We all remember the 2016 election, when “Lock her up!” was their rallying cry. As political scientist John Stoehr points out,
Most people understand the difference between evidence of wrongdoing and claims of wrongdoing – most people, anyway, if they have ever watched a television courtroom drama in which evidence is independent of the interests of those who enter it into the record. The accused is not guilty because the accuser says he is. He is guilty because the evidence points overwhelmingly toward guilt.
“Most people,” however, doesn’t include either the Queen of Hearts or MAGA Republicans. Stoehr points out that the latter
begin with a verdict and then work backwards, no matter how objectively cynical it may appear. They took control of the House “knowing” that Biden was guilty of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors. They have since then worked very hard to uncover reasonsreasonsreasons for why they’re right.
The crime in Alice in Wonderland is the theft of tarts, as described in the nursery rhyme that Lewis Carroll draws on:
The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!”
Of course the knave, unlike Biden, is actually guilty. Still, evidence is needed to determine guilt. In Alice in Wonderland the King of Hearts, as judge, keeps trying to move past the evidence stage:
Consider your verdict,” the King said to the jury.
“Not yet, not yet!” the Rabbit hastily interrupted. “There’s a great deal to come before that!”
And:
Consider your verdict,” he said to the jury, in a low, trembling voice.
“There’s more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty,” said the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry; “this paper has just been picked up.”
The paper proves to be a set of verses, but the subsequent conversation about them shows a looseness of legal reasoning that would do MAGA House members proud:
“Are they in the prisoner’s handwriting?” asked another of the jurymen.
“No, they’re not,” said the White Rabbit, “and that’s the queerest thing about it.” (The jury all looked puzzled.)
“He must have imitated somebody else’s hand,” said the King. (The jury all brightened up again.)
“Please your Majesty,” said the Knave, “I didn’t write it, and they can’t prove I did: there’s no name signed at the end.”
“If you didn’t sign it,” said the King, “that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you’d have signed your name like an honest man.”
There was a general clapping of hands at this: it was the first really clever thing the King had said that day.
“That proves his guilt,” said the Queen.
In this crazy world of upside-down logic, there’s only one who calls BS, and that’s Alice. And while the nonsense world doesn’t collapse like a house of cards, she exposes it for what it is:
“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”
“Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.
“I won’t!” said Alice.
“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
“Who cares for you?” said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her…
It is at this point in the book that Alice awakens from what has become a nightmare:
…she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.
“Wake up, Alice dear!” said her sister; “Why, what a long sleep you’ve had!”
It would be nice to think that unhinged MAGA Republicans are no more substantial than pieces of cardboard. I recently read an article by NeverTrumper Steve Schmidt who, interviewing Trump supporters around the country, has been discovering that many regard him, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and the others as performance artists—which, it so happens, is how the Lewis Carroll’s Gryphon sees the Queen of Hearts:
The Gryphon sat up and rubbed its eyes: then it watched the Queen till she was out of sight: then it chuckled. “What fun!” said the Gryphon, half to itself, half to Alice.
“What is the fun?” said Alice.
“Why, she,” said the Gryphon. “It’s all her fancy, that: they never executes nobody, you know. Come on!”
When I was a child, the sight of the cards flying at Alice used to terrify me but now they seem harmless enough. Unfortunately, performance artists who get hold of power can do actual damage. The question is whether these Americans will grow out of their wonderland before someone gets hurt.