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 Joe Biden was more careful than I tend to be. I tend to swing a big stick around labeled "Republicans versus Democrats" and I don't really care which I hit. But here is exactly what I know: the shades of gray that exist between red and blue are vast. I know, for example, that there are plenty of Republicans who could not be moved to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020. There is a very large group who saw what happened during those first four years and after seeing what "Make America Great Again" meant to the guy in charge, switched their vote in the last election. I am also aware that there were plenty of Democrats who, when presented with candidates like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden chose to throw in with the red baseball caps to "stir things up." 

Well, things got stirred up. The storming of the capitol on January 6, 2021 put a fine point on that. It also made clear the distinction between those who cast their ballot and those who are no longer content to simply participate in a representative democracy. The people who broke windows, savaged law enforcement officers, threatened lawmakers and the Vice President of the United States numbered in the thousands, but do not represent the overwhelming majority of the Republican Party. Sadly, it continues to be the loudly spoken party line that these were innocent victims of an election that was "stolen." Regardless of the number of times the numbers are reviewed and the reality is made plain, there is a frontline chorus that seems content to continue to "stir things up." Not out of any sense of making things work better as a whole, but to work out better for themselves. 

The threat of "riots in the streets" from Republican leadership if Donald Trump is indicted is clear and present danger. The picture being painted here is that somehow the miscarriages of justice over the past six years have all been on the Democratic side. While there are a few voices of reason within that group that have begun to distance themselves from the crimes of their standard bearer, but for the most part, those in positions near the top of the big red heap seem committed to the shell game being played in which Donald Trump is some sort of innocent victim. 

George Floyd was an innocent victim. Trayvon Martin was an innocent victim. These are facts that have been borne out of court decisions. The riots in the streets that occurred for these men and the dozens of other unjustly murdered individuals are the action. The reaction from those who would like to draw a correlation between them and Donald Trump are deficient in their reasoning. They are not "Republicans." They are members of a movement Joe Biden described as "MAGA Republicans." Even that may be too wide a brush. 

These are people who are living in the fear of having to share the power they have gained over the centuries at someone else's expense. It is time to right the ship. By leaning left.