ROGER KIMBALL: Show Trials—Then and Now.

H. L. Mencken once observed that no one “ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

That’s a nicely phrased comment.—

But I suspect we are on the verge of seeing it disproved.

Those “great masses” understand what the House Committee is up to.

Moreover, the public well remembers the multiple scenes of carnage from across the country from about the same time in response (ostensibly) to the black man who died while resisting arrest in Minneapolis.

The mob breached the White House security perimeter.

They torched police cars and police stations while pathetic reporters stood in front of the conflagrations and informed the public that what they were watching were “mostly peaceful” protests.

They maimed police officers and caused some $2 billion in damage.

The January 6 protest lasted a few hours.

The only shot was fired, without warning, by Capitol Hill Police officer Michael Byrd.

The bullet was fired at point-blank range at Ashli Babbitt,  an unarmed veteran who was trying to calm protesters adjacent to her.

It struck her in the neck and killed her. Byrd was exonerated.

Then there was Roseanne Boyland, also unarmed, who was gassed and beaten while unconscious by the police.

She died, too.

Most of the people who entered the Capitol that day, many of whom were ushered in by smiling Capitol police officers, just wandered around gawking.

So outside the beltway, the public is pretty uninterested in this story, especially when inflation is the worst it’s been in 40 years, consumer confidence is at an 83-year low, energy prices are skyrocketing, as are interest rates, food, and housing, and the stock market, which means most people’s retirement accounts, is imploding.

And leftist violence continues: Have you heard about the 41 pro-life organizations and churches that have been vandalized in the last 40 days?