Insurrection, treason, and felony witness tampering: The takeaways from yesterday's explosive January 6th hearing

We thought it couldn't get much worse after Cassidy Hutchinson's territory. But, of course, it could get much worse.

Yesterday's testimony was devastating. Brad Parscale—Brad Parscale!—sent a private text message to Katrina Pierson that what Donald Trump was trying to do was incite a civil war.

We learned that far from being a spontaneous outburst, Trump's call to march to the Capitol was planned far in advance. He was even about to issue a tweet to that effect, but the tweet was never sent, as the plotters feared that the National Park Service would pull the permit for the January 6th rally. (That's right; the putschists were afraid of a permit being pulled. Profiles in courage they are not.) We learned that Trump's putative paramilitary was primed and ready for war, speaking about a "red wedding," a reference to an episode of Game of Thrones in which a massacre is featured. We learned that the so-called "sane" members of the regime tried to forestall Trump's madness privately, but didn't sound the klaxon publicly. Yesterday's hearing was a reification that the Republican Party is a threat to the survival of this republic, and must be smashed to the ground.

And the criminality continues. At the end of the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney let it be known that a witness who has yet to testify in open session—but will next week—was contacted by Trump. This witness did not answer the call; they instead told their lawyer, who informed the committee. The committee has passed on the information to the Department of Justice. Aside from being threatening, this was also foolish in the extreme for Trump to do. Felony obstruction of justice is one of the easiest things to prove in court. Trump just handed the government something on which he most certainly can get convicted. When criminals panic, they make huge mistakes like this. Now, why did he do this himself, when he's been so careful to not get his hands dirty in public? Perhaps because it's now obvious that he has no allies left. All his underlings are either selling him out on purpose, or by their ineptitude. He has no one left to be his enforcer. He is, quite simply, alone.

Now, the question is: Why didn't the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys enact their massacre? Were they stymied by the brave defense put up by the Capitol Police? And once the National Guard came in hot, did they know they didn't stand a chance against trained soldiers? I'm sure that will come out in their trials. But the long and short of it is that these people were going all in and wanting to start a civil war for the man who hated those they hated, who spoke to their inadequacies and failures. Because this is what all these people are: failures. Moral and intellectual failures who blame everyone but themselves for their lot in life. It doesn't matter if many of them were middle or upper-middle class. It doesn't matter that many of them have high educational achievement. In their souls they feel themselves to be failures, because the country they thought they had is gone, and their absolute power is slipping away. They are empty husks, full only of hate and bile, seeking out those on whom they blame the loss of "their" country, wanting to exact violent retribution on them.

But this country is bigger than they are. It's more expansive, move loving, more filled with justice than they suspected. What they and their ilk have done by their actions is awaken a sleeping giant. From January 6th to Dobbs, they're desperate to stop the change which is inexorable if we continue to pursue it. They'll fail, but they have the potential to do much damage on the way down. Our task is to make sure they can't. There must be consequences, or this war will drag out longer than it should.