How the January 6th Committee ended Josh Hawley's national ambitions
How the January 6th Committee ended Josh Hawley's national ambitions
One image that made Hawley look like a ridiculous hypocrite
It remains to be seen if the January 6th Committee will end the political career of Donald Trump, but we can be more certain that it ended the national ambitions of Senator Josh Hawley.
The Missouri senator has styled himself as a next generation Trumpist, one who sees populism as his ticket to the White House. There is a lot of competition in this domain now, but Hawley stands out for his association with the January 6th attack, when he raised a fist in solidarity with the mob and was the first Senator to announce he would oppose certifying Biden’s victory.
Hawley has embraced this image. On his website the top merchandising items continue to be his raised fist to the January 6th mob.
The January 6th Committee effectively ended Hawley’s prospects for higher office by posting a grainy security six-second camera image of Hawley running away from the mob he had riled up.
Hawley might remain a Senator, maybe a Governor. He could win a Cabinet post and hope that in the decades to follow this image fades from our collective memory. But I don’t think it will. Why?
Hawley looked ridiculous
The January 6th hearings are a serious business, and have sought to maintain a certain level of gravitas. So it was all the more striking when the audience at the hearing broke into spontaneous laughter when seeing the image of Hawley (sound on).
The obvious and unfair comparison is Dukakis wearing a helmet in the tank, a political image that seems to mock its own subject. It is indelible, illustrating how images have the power to shape our perception of someone in a way that words cannot.
Some politicians can do ridiculous. Trump or Boris Johnson are the most obvious examples. They embrace kitsch to the point that an unflattering image is no longer damaging. But most politicians cannot. Hawley cannot do ridiculous. Even among politicians, he stands out for his preening self-regard, the pained calculatedness of his every action.
Ridiculousness pops Hawley’s bubble of self-seriousness. This amazing thread posted Hawley running to a variety of soundtracks. Every clip is funny. In every image Hawley is ridiculous. You cannot watch it and take him seriously again.
Hawley looked like a hypocrite
Beyond ridiculousness, here is a second element to the clip that is fatal to Hawley’s ambitions. Both Keith Olbermann and Jamelle Bouie invoked the 1983 movie The Dead Zone, where Christopher Walken’s clairvoyant character realizes that a populist presidential candidate Greg Stillson would launch a nuclear war if elected. He plans an assassination, during which Stillson shields himself with a child, ending his own career.
Looking ridiculous is bad. Looking like a ridiculous hypocrite is worse. Part of the knock on Hawley is that he faux populist, channeling dark energies in American politics that he knows are dangerous. Hawley is an elite, who attended Stanford and Yale Law School, and clerked with Chief Justice Roberts. At every turn in his charmed life he was helped by powerful men, including his political mentor Senator John Danforth, who described his support of Hawley as "the worst mistake I ever made in my life."
Hawley’s populist convictions appear entirely opportunistic, yet deeply damaging. His early opposition to the results of a free and fair election reflect a willingness to be the first to sacrifice basic political norms to raise his profile. Another example is his leadership among Republican politicians in mainstreaming Q-Anon conspiracy theories.
In introducing the image of Hawley running to the January 6th Committee, Virginia Democrat Elaine Luria said: “Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.” The set-up highlighted Hawley’s hypocrisy. He ran away from the forces he unleashed. See for yourself.
We’ve already seen images of politicians running and hiding on January 6th, and no-one could blame them. But with Hawley the image is so powerful because it symbolizes his knowledge that the forces he is seeking to ride to national office are beyond control, and his general indifference to this fact. Hawley running from the mob also symbolizes a broader willingness of Republican elites to co-opt rather than reject populism, based on a cynical calculation that prioritizes political power above American democracy. We don’t know where this will end for America, but at least it won’t end with President Josh Hawley.
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Can we please stop using the word "elite" to connote something bad? "Elite" is taken by people to mean, among other things, well educated. Being well educated is a good thing. Running "elites" out of public office gets you Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. Hawley sucks because he's a bad person, a hypocrite, a liar, knows what he's doing is dangerous but does it anyway, overly ambitious, selfish, etc. He doesn't suck because he's well educated. He sucks because he's all of those other things despite being well educated.