snip ...

All of which is worth keeping in mind while we debate the way forward from Tuesday's election. As Democrats storm back into power, any exultation is closely chased by the sobering realization of how much it will take to fix the wreckage the MAGA movement leaves behind. By virtually any relevant measure you care to use - health, diplomacy, military readiness, climate change, gas prices, immigration or even the simple maintenance of the White House grounds - the GOP has sown a path of destruction that would do a tornado proud. Anyone who has ever lifted the garage door on a Saturday morning to confront a pile of junk sprawling from floor to ceiling and wall to wall will be familiar with the dilemma Democrats in Congress face when they take office in January: a mess so daunting, you hardly know where to begin.

Given that the donkey party is not itself unduly burdened by popularity, lawmakers would be well advised to begin delivering for the American people sooner rather than later. It is incumbent upon them to remind the electorate what governance looks like and to prove that they can deliver it.

snip ...

But to frame what we feel as simply a desire for revenge is to render petty and tawdry that which is simply human. Why else do we have courts, if not to satisfy a basic need to see those who have done wrong held accountable - a need, in other words, to see justice done? There is nothing either petty or tawdry about that. As a practical matter, the promise of justice served stands as a deterrent to those who might be tempted to do wrong. As a moral matter, it reinforces the idea that society functions in an orderly and predictable manner, that crime doesn't pay and that at least once in awhile, those who commit misdeeds will be required to answer for them.

snip ...

No, this is not a call for MAGA executions. Not even close. But is it really asking so much that there be vigorous Congressional investigations of its misdeeds? That breaches of trust be exposed? That thieves be punished for their thievery? That lawbreakers go to prison? That if impeachment be indicated, it be pursued? That bad people face public shame?

Don't we deserve that? Doesn't the future deserve it? Don't we need that at least as much as we need affordable gas? Isn't it time, 161 years after the guns of Civil War went silent, to finally make it clear that those who break faith with the United States of America will pay a price for doing so?

It is all well and good and even evinces a certain nobility of spirit to swallow your grievances and move on. Except that sometimes, grievances are too grievous for that. DeSantis speaks of the election as a near extinction level event for his party, but the greater truth is that his party has been a near extinction level event for American democracy, has brought us as close to the brink as we have ever been.

And while there is a certain seductive power in the idea of now letting them up easy, while it may seem pragmatic, while it even appeals to our innate sense of decency, history tells us in no uncertain terms that that is a bad idea. The forces of intolerance took the wrong lessons from Lincoln's charity. That's one of the reasons MAGA even exists.

Let's not make the same mistake twice.