Being a chickenhawk is nothing new to members of the Republican Party. It seems to me that the QAnon and pro-political violence caucus in Congress had two choices after Donald Trump incited the January 6 Save America crowd to storm the Capitol. They could have joined the crowd, which believed that the election was stolen, or they could have tried to stop the mob. Instead, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley et al, were in a safe and secure location when the mob came calling!
Several years ago, The New Hampshire Gazette, which claimed to be “the Nation’s Oldest Newspaper,” established a “Chickenhawk Hall of Shame,” which listed 154 Chickenhawks from across the right-wing spectrum. The list, which is comprised of neo-conservatives, religious right luminaries, Senators and Congressmen, and media personalities, included Elliott Abrams, Roger Ailes, John Ashcroft, Gary Bauer, Glenn Beck, William Bennett, Pat Boone, Dinesh D’Souza, Frank Gaffney, Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, Frank Luntz, Ralph Reed, Paul Wolfowitz, and a host of other names you’re likely to recognize.
In the late spring of 2003, the husband and wife team Jerry and Lisa Vasilatos, responded to the Bush administration’s Iraqi “Deck of Death” playing cards, by putting together the “Deck of Republican Chickenhawks.” The Deck, according to a blurb at Amazon, “depict[ed] 54 Republican officials, congressmen, politicians and pundits who avoided serving their country through connections, deferments, or other excuses...” According to a September 29, Time magazine story, the two jokers were President George W. Bush and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
RationalWiki defined a chickenhawk as “a person in a position of public prominence or power who displays two traits: Aggressive support for military force as a primary instrument of foreign policy; [and,] [a] documentable lack of combat experience (usually despite having the opportunity to fight, or even actively dodging it).”
A twenty-first century iteration of the chickenhawk was on full display during the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol building. The bullies, braggarts, boasters, hustlers, grifters, gun-toters and promulgators of the Big Lie that the election was stolen from Generalissimo Donald Trump, were in a safe and secure location when their minions – the mob they inspired -- invaded the Capitol on January 6.
Where were the Big Lie Republicans? Where were the GOP office holders that raised their fists to the crowd (Josh Hawley)? Where were the QAnon conspiracy theory supporters (Majorie Taylor Greene)? Where was the take no prisoner crowd (Rep. Mo Brooks)?
Did any of them do anything to try and stop the mob? Did they attempt to stop or discourage the destruction? Did they step up and support overwhelmed law enforcement officials? No. No. No.
They were hidden away in a safe and secure location, out of the mob’s reach. Only after the mob was removed from the building did they come out of hiding and what did many of them do? They blustificated on the floor of Congress, and continued propagating the Big Lie..
During his lengthy speech at the “Save America” rally on January 6, President Donald Trump told the crowd “we are going to march up to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you.” Then, while the mob marched to the Capitol, Trump marched over to the White House for a Trump family – along with a coterie of sycophants – “watch party.”
Before the onslaught, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley was seen pumping his fist; saluting the mob that then stormed the building, vandalized it and temporarily delayed the vote. The Senator was in a secure location when the mob rolled in.
“The hundred and forty-seven members of the House and Senate who, later that night, voted to overturn the results of the election” were in hiding for hours, “from the very people they’d been inciting for months and even years,” Jill Lepore wrote in The New Yorker.
Where was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trumpy, QAnon-friendly, conspiracy-toting, mass-shooting-denying, assassination-promoting lightning-rod Republican, when the Capitol was breached? Shouldn’t she have been out there with the mob she had been inciting for many months? The newly seated Georgia Republican congresswoman was in a secure place sequestered from her compadres in the mob.
Mother Jones’ David Corn recently reported that Greene “served as one of a handful of moderators of the Facebook page [of the Family America Project], which has provided a forum for death threats against Democrats, bigoted attacks on the Obamas and others, and assorted conspiracy theories.”
When the whole world was watching, like GOP chickenhawks of yesteryear, Greene, Hawley and Brooks chose a safe place to hide away from the mob. Then, only after the building was cleared did they come out of hiding and “courageously” vote not to accept Joe Biden’s electoral victory.