I wrote about Madison Cawthorn and the future of the Republican Party for the latest issue of @NYMag: https://t.co/62gvkBIOwX
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) January 16, 2021
“In hindsight,” Cawthorn went on, “you know, I wish I could’ve … uhh … if I could, you know … I probably would’ve … obviously … knowing what happened later in the day … I wish I would’ve been like, ‘Just so you know, we are peaceful protesters.’ ”
He seems to imagine that, had he just gone out into the public areas of the Capitol, the protestors would have parted like the Red Sea for Moses, and like Charlton Heston he'd have calmed the crowd and told them to stand down, and they'd have followed him to the Promised Land:
“I genuinely believe, had we realized what was going on and sent myself, or maybe Lauren Boebert” — he was referring to the freshman representative from Colorado infamous for her gun fetish — “some of these people who are just very recognizable to, kind of, the MAGA crowd; in the wheelchair, I probably would’ve been better, because it’s very easily recognizable. I might’ve just gone to the front steps.” And there, facing the rioters, he said, “I think we could’ve stopped them.”
Oh, to be 25 again....although, even at 25, I was older than this:
During an interview with the columnist John Solomon (famous for spreading Ukrainian-themed conspiracy theories ahead of the first Trump impeachment), Cawthorn described his new station in magical terms. “You think of a Harry Potter or a Gandalf in one of these great works of fiction,” he said. “They’re handed a wand. And you as the viewer, you don’t exactly know what they can do with that wand, but you know it holds incredible power. That’s a lot what it’s like coming into Congress, because there’s really no limitations onto what you can and cannot do in Congress. Aside from what the Supreme Court will allow you to do.”
To be fair, he does kinda sorta recognize the problem:
But that’s not going to work for him anymore, not in the environment he feels forming in the void left by Trump. “I think that’s bad for the country,” he said. “I really think that us just saying whatever the fuck we want to say and then — please don’t quote the ‘fuck’ — just saying whatever we want to say and then never apologizing for it, never saying, ‘Oh, you know what? That was wrong. This is actually wrong because this is actually not factual; here, let me fix that.’ I think that hurts our party, and it hurts us as humans and Americans because it makes people just so angry and aggressive toward one another. I don’t think it makes you weaker to apologize.”
He just thinks he's fine as he is, and that he is the solution:
“Maybe my remarks that day led to a thousand less people, or ten less people, who didn’t storm the Capitol,” he told me. “Maybe that number would’ve been enough to breach the House floor, and congressmen could have died or more police officers could have died. I think my comments there led to less violence.”
Beats taking responsibility. Which is where the real irony bites. Madison Cawthorn is an "Evangelical ex-linebacker son of a financial adviser." But clearly he wears his religion loosely; especially if you adhere to this blog's definition of religion, via Jacques Derrida: "Religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all."
He also thinks he's a Great Man in a Great Age:
“I feel a lot like Magellan,” he said. “You know — the great explorer during the Age of Exploration.”
Like I said: oh, to be 25 again. Life is gonna pound him like a nail.
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