The proposed independent commission to
investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is dead. The few
Republicans of conscience who joined Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney in
understanding what happened represent a feeble resistance to the cult leader
who has taken over their party.
The Party of Trump is in near lock-step
loyalty to their leader who was overwhelmingly voted out of office. That
lock-step loyalty is looking more like goose-stepping with each passing day.
This isn’t hyperbole.
They either still believe his Big Lie, or
refuse to disavow the Big Lie. As longs as they are under Trump’s control they
are an authoritarian cult of personality. Nothing is more dangerous to a
democratic republic than a party more loyal to its leader than to our people
and Constitution.
Mitch McConnell earned the title "Grim
Reaper of Democracy" before his conversion to the Trump Cult. His denial of a
vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee was a betrayal of our Constitution. He and Trump packed a third of the Supreme
Court, despite the majority of voters who rejected his party’s occupancy of the
White House.
The radical Right does not want to govern.
They want to rule.
Governing requires cooperation and a bi-partisan
investigation of Trump’s January 6th insurrection. Mitch demanded
his party shut it down, calling it a “personal favor”. 35 Republican Senators
fell in line.
It’s no wonder they don’t want an
investigation of 1/6. Trump’s toadies and his drones in congress are guilty as
hell for organizing and inciting his coup. And make no mistake, the radical
Right coup is ongoing. We have not seen
the end of it.
Senate Republicans spent two years investigating Benghazi, but voted against
investigating an attack on the Capitol. They would rather lie and blame BLM and
antifa for the actions of their hate-filled radical cult. Hillary Clinton has
shown more guts, integrity and patriotism than every insurrection-abetting
Republican.
The Republican Party will be enemies of the republic as long as it believes the
President can buy off porn stars, obstruct justice, and incite acts of
insurrection without penalty.
The Trump Cult has become a criminal cartel.
The “Stop the Steal March” was really Trump’s “March to Steal”. And of course,
he lied about marching with them.
Congressional conspirators Louie Gohmert, Jim
Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, and Andy Biggs
are traitors who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Each of
them gave insurrectionists reconnaissance tours of the Capitol on January 5th.
We've yet to discover the extent of the coordinated planning to "fight
like hell" and "take back our country" through "trial by
combat" by Trump's inner circle of loyal toadies and henchmen.
The Party of Trump wants to "move on" from the January 6th, 2021
insurrection; preferring to go back to denying the November 3rd, 2020 election.
I have no doubt they would follow Hitler if he was here today. Trump is proof.
They obediently and avidly support him after his insurrection, just as
authoritarian Germans supported Hitler after his failed coup on November 8,
1923. Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch was inspired by Mussolini’s “march to steal”
1922 march on Rome that overthrew Italy’s elected government. Nazis, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the
rest of the American radical Right share a fanatic hatred for minorities,
equality, voter rights, progressives, socialists, and leftists. They don't want
to debate or run on policy. They would lose. Instead they want to destroy democracy.
And they wonder why they are seen as authoritarians.
If the election was corrupted by massive
fraud and irregularities, why has not one Republican officeholder who objected to Biden’s victory
objected to his own win? They were on the same ballot in the same election. How
is it only Republicans are "fairly elected"?
Anyone?
The only answer is they are a party of
radical white nationalists who oppose democracy itself. Too many Americans,
especially minorities, voted in the last election, so the radical right is enacting new laws to assure that won’t ever happen again.
Suppressing democracy, especially minority
voting rights, is essential to the authoritarian, white nationalist, fascist
playbook.
We recall the pro-Trump Nazis chanting, “Jews
will not replace us! YOU will not replace us!”, in Charlottesville during the
“Unite the Right” rally in 2017.
Republicans, white nationalists, and their radical right ilk have one great fear. Minorities. They are fearful of their white majority fading. They are indoctrinated to believe minorities will be corrupting “their country” by their decadence and impurity.
Damn right I’m comparing them to Nazis. This was Hitler’s first Big Lie about
Jews.
The “Great Replacement” or “replacement
theory” of European white nationalism is finding its home in American white
nationalists and the radicalized Republican Party
Tucker Carlson promoted it. “I have less
political power because they're importing a brand new electorate. Why should I
sit back and take that? The power that I have as an American guaranteed at
birth is one man, one vote, and they're diluting it. No, they are not allowed
to do that. Why are we putting up with this?"
Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor is
worried about the “great replacement” too. He was appointed to West
Point's Board of Visitors in the waning months of the Trump
administration.
"The idea is that they have to bring in
as many non-Europeans as possible in order to outnumber the numbers of
Americans of European ancestry who live in the United States. That's what it's
all about. And I don't think there's any point in questioning it. That is the
policy. ... It is a deliberate policy to enact demographic change...We're also
encouraging all these worst elements to come in and camp and effectively enjoy
the fruits of citizenship without earning them and without ever having
qualified for them," he said, "And I think some of you must have seen
the thousands of pregnant women coming up from Latin America, so they can have
their children here. And then the child immediately is declared an American
citizen. And again, all of this is part of the grand plan. This is what Mr.
Biden and his supporters want. They want another country. They don't want the
United States."
Herr Goebbels would be so proud of his
American protégés.
Fascism and racism have been close partners
for a hundred years and counting, and now that the Republican Party is the
party of Trump, it’s contagion has become toxic to the truth and to our democratic republic.
American neo-fascism needs more than the
usual scapegoats and bigotry to seduce its indoctrinated cult. It needs to
undermine and destroy democracy. Voting must be suppressed. Elections must be
questioned, denied and overturned if the radical Right loses the vote count.
Trump lost the election, and so they staged a
coup. It was so shocking and horrifying even some Republicans temporarily spoke
the truth.
Trump’s fanatic boot-licker Kevin McCarthy
was moved to proclaim the facts on January 13, 2021. "President Trump
bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He
should have IMMEDIATELY denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. These
facts require immediate action by President Trump to accept his share of
responsibility, quell the brewing unrest and ensure President-elect Biden is
able to successfully begin his term.”
McCarthy even suggested that Trump become
the first president in more than a century to be censured.
But like every authoritarian follower, he
soon fell in line.
On April 25th, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked
McCarthy about Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s (R-Wash.) claim that Trump had told
McCarthy during the riot, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset
about the election than you are.” McCarthy declined to confirm or deny it.
Instead he suggest Trump had responded sufficiently to his pleas for action.
“I was the first person to contact him when
the riots” were going on, McCarthy said. “He didn’t see it. [How] he ended the
call was saying — telling me, he’ll put something out to make sure to stop this.
And that’s what he did, he put a video out later.”
Yes, we remember Trump’s video, praising his
thugs, telling them they were “special” and “loved”.
This is the glaring evidence that McCarthy
has been completely radicalized.
But he isn’t the only one to abandon the
facts and bend the knee to the first traitor president.
Senator Mitch McConnell understood what
happened on 1-6-21:
“President Trump claims the election was
stolen. The assertions range from specific local allegations, to constitutional
arguments to sweeping conspiracy theories.
I supported the president’s right to use the
legal system. Dozens of lawsuits received hearings in courtrooms all across our
country. But over and over, courts rejected these claims...but my colleagues, nothing
before us proves illegalities anywhere near the massive scale that would have
tipped the entire election. Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break
when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence...If this election were
overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter
a death spiral. We’d never see the whole nation accept an election again. Every
four years would be a scramble for power at any cost.”
The Grim Reaper’s somber sincerity didn’t
last long. About two weeks actually. On January 19th McConnell said,
“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful
people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding
of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
But his tune soon changed to the
authoritarian marching song.
FOX(R)’s Bret Baier asked what he would do if Trump was the nominee in 2024:
"If the President was the party's nominee, would you support him?"
McConnell replied, "The nominee of the party? Absolutely."
Loyalty to the Fuhrer. Trump uber alles.
Mitch needed to downplay the coup, and shut
down any bi-partisan congressional efforts to investigate the insurrection.
“It’s not at all clear what new facts or
additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of
existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress,” McConnell said on the Senate
floor Wednesday, announcing his opposition. “What is clear is that House
Democrats have handled this proposal in partisan bad faith going right back to
the beginning.”
You see how clear it is? It wasn’t “partisan
bad faith” behind the coup at all. It’s the Democrats’ fault for wanting to
investigate it.
On May 25th, McConnell whined
Democrats “would like to continue to debate things that occurred in the past.
They'd like to continue to litigate the former president into the future. We
think the American people, going forward, and in the fall of '22, ought to
focus on what this administration is doing to the country and what the clear
choice is that we have made, to oppose most of these initiatives”.
Yes, initiatives like investigating who
abetted Trump’s coup. Never mind what Trump’s coup is doing to our country,
look at what the Biden Administration is doing to the country.
The radicalization is complete. Once the leaders in the party of Trump have obediently and cowardly submitted to their Fuhrer, the rest of America’s duped authoritarians would follow suit. The horrific reality is they number close to a third of the population. Most Republicans and Trump voters think he won. And those millions of duped, angry authoritarians remain ready to follow their leader's exhortation, "And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore!"
This is our republic's worst nightmare. The enemies are within, and are ready to destroy our democracy because their glorious leader refuses to admit he lost the election. The American people, the rule of law, and our Constitutional order must contend with brainwashing on a scale that rivals North Korea. The radical Right is indoctrinated top to bottom.
A fellow blogger has given us a revealing
snapshot of how this “trickle down insurrection” has taken root among the cult
followers.
Our old buddy Darrell, formerly T. Paine,
wrote this at my blog on Jan 8, 2021: “Dave, Trump was wrong to give
encouragement and a wink and a nod to the protestors and delaying any attempt
to rein them back. He was complicit. Sadly this ego maniacal narcissist
tarnished the myriad of good things he has done for our country with this
latest escapade.”
This is what Darrell wrote on May 15, 2021:
“Trump instigates a riot according to the left and the media, but then I repeat
myself. (He didn’t.)”
And there you have it. Radicalization
accomplished.
17 comments:
Dave, very well stated. "The enemies are within" and "Brainwashing on a scale that rivals North Korea" sum up the nations dire condition currently. All of the voter suppression laws are very worrisome.
“ A fellow blogger has given us a revealing snapshot of how this “trickle down insurrection” has taken root among the cult followers.”
Yes, Dave. The capitulation is complete when the one conservative that I thought had principles, TPaine, abandons his name sake, becomes Darrell and completely submits to the will of Donald and QAnon. Darrell has drank the kool-aid. RIP, T. Paine!
Tim,
I worry the radical Right Party of Trump has a lethal choke-hold on the entire country. They are neo-fascists by every definition. Racism, authoritarianism, deceit, conformity, and belligerence against equality and dissent.
Jerry,
Conservatism has no principles. It is nothing but a closed-minded resistance to human progress and subservience to the economic elites.
Darrell and the rest of the radical right, unlike Thomas Paine, have lost their common sense.
The authoritarian personality has a built-in emotional need to follow their leaders without question.
You are right Dave. There must be a subgroup of humans who do not want, or cannot want, to think for themselves. You see this in religion all the time, and now we have it in politics too. It is no wonder that the two have merged. They both thrive on a blind belief in an authoritarian leader and what he says.
"Darrell and the rest of the radical right, unlike Thomas Paine, have lost their common sense."
At least he had the decency to drop the pretense of 'Saving Common Sense'. He can just go ahead and try to gaslight everything else, but at least he can't insincerely claim that what he blathers and knee-jerks is sense, common or otherwise.
Good post, Dave. The absurdity that is the "conservative" discourse now is simultaneously mind numbing and mind boggling.
To Darrell's credit, he has allowed my comments to his threads.
His responses are limited to resentments, dismissal, accusations, and ubiquitous "red card".
I left him a few words to ponder:
Darrell,
Thank you for your tolerance. I know you're very annoyed by what I contribute, because you're are unable to engage in good faith discussion of the issues raised. Many facts cannot penetrate your ideological bubble. You can't cite a single falsehood from me, just as you cannot cite evidence the election was "stolen".
You recognize the existence of racism, but must denounce any historical accounting of it. Especially by Black people, who you must see as evil Marxists. (Not that they are advocating a one party Marxist state, or government ownership of all means of production and distribution, aka real Marxism.)
I get it. That has always been a touchy subject for conservative white people.
It would seem everything you dislike, or don't understand, or don't want to understand is dismissed as "Marxist". The red card is your final play. It is profoundly anti-intellectual when assertion becomes reality to the radicalized mind. Debate is avoided because it requires agreement on definitions of terms, logic, reasoning, and evidence. All of which are cancerous to the radical Right.
The radical Right can only debate in memes and slogans.
"Marxism". That about covers your entire case. It is lazy, as well as lame.
Facts are facts. This is your problem. Too many facts are inconvenient to your radicalized beliefs.
You believe Donald Trump. You have bent your beliefs to conform to Donald Trump's election Big Lie and his refusal to accept responsibility for his insurrection.
The second Civil war has already begun, but was started by Trump, not the left. And it is based on lies, just like the lies that Bush/Cheney used for war in Iraq. Hint: Saddam had no nuclear or chemical weapons production. He had no relationship with al-Qaeda. They HATED Saddam. But, you know, facts.
I think that you believe conservatism itself is virtue. It isn't. But that delusion allows conservatives to believe any lie from someone they consider conservative or have politically supported.
But conservatism is NOT virtue. I pray you figure that one out. Sadly, I hold little hope for that much self-examination of your beliefs.
But you go ahead and frame the radical white right as the "real victims" of racism and political marginalization. The opposite is true.
That delusional ideation is your only reality, and it is tearing our country apart.
Trump lost. Sorry your feelings are hurt. Now you know what we felt when that lying crooked traitor won the Electoral votes.
The difference is the left didn't need to resort to open insurrection. The left didn't wage a legislative war on voting.
The radical Right can't admit defeat, like their dear leader, America's Sorest Loser.
Who are the whiny snowflakes now? That evil man has made you like him.
All you have is anger and resentment. And Trump's Big Lie.
And that is truly heartbreaking for our civil society and destructive to our democratic republic.
You are a decent man. But decent men can be misled with indecent lies.
The neo-fascist Trumpers are a minority, but a majority of Republicans lead state legislatures. This is where the real work is being done, i.e., voter suppression and changing the rules for counting and assigning electoral votes.
I don't know if the Democrats are working behind the scenes to confront this assault on our democracy, but if they aren't, we can kiss our republic good-bye, and tell Franklin that we could not keep it.
Shaw,
Republicans have long been threatened by democracy, journalism and public education. No wonder those are their prime targets.
I wonder if Franklin suspected we could lose our republic because of the slave state's demands for the electoral college and equal number of senators for each state.
A system with built-in inequality of representation is a fatal flaw for any republic.
It's no comfort in needing to depend on corpo-dems like Manchin and Sinema to remove the filibuster, another favorite tool of more recent Southern racists.
It shouldn't be like asking for a miracle.
The Delusional President Biden says that vaccine was developed by him .LOL!
Ignorance isn't ignorance to the ignorant.
Ridiculous
Tom,
Ridiculous back at you.
Why not show us where Biden claimed to have personally developed the vaccine?
If you cannot do so, then your claim is delusional. Like the "stolen election".
And as we all know, delusions are not delusions to the delusional.
Yeah, and it is not delusional to think that the supremely corrupt and cognitively challenged Biden, whom seldom emerged from his bunker during the campaign or rarely talked to the press, garnered more votes than Obama or anyone else in HISTORY. All of the left gathered around and voted for this politician without any enthusiasm. Yeah, THAT's not delusional to think that was all legitimate.
All the Delusional can do is quote each other.
Darrell,
Your authoritarian nature and deep belief in Trump deny the reality that he was not a popular president. He could never rise to a 50% approval rating in polls. And every poll showed him losing the election.
Your authoritarian nature naturally sees rallies as a measure of public opinion. Sorry. That is not reality. Even with a margin of error in polls, they consistently indicated how much the public disliked Trump.
That is what you cannot fathom. This is why you cannot accept his defeat. This is how you are just like him. It is the nature of the authoritarian personality.
The reason is your beliefs have been molded by confirmation bias and radical Right propaganda.
But you cannot fathom that either, sadly.
And if you think Biden is corrupt, wait until the crimes of the Trump Cartel are prosecuted. Your radical Right propagandists, by by extension, you, will never accept that reality either.
You have shown us how easily duped and radicalized you've become.
You probably ignored or dismissed these remarks at your blog, so I'll add them here:
On Jan 8, 2021 you wrote: “Dave, Trump was wrong to give encouragement and a wink and a nod to the protestors and delaying any attempt to rein them back. He was complicit. Sadly this ego maniacal narcissist tarnished the myriad of good things he has done for our country with this latest escapade.”
On May 15, 2021: “Trump instigates a riot according to the left and the media, but then I repeat myself. (He didn’t.)”
And there you have it. Radicalization accomplished.
I respected you for agreeing Trump was not morally fit to be president. I respected your brief notion that, “Trump was wrong to give encouragement and a wink and a nod to the protestors and delaying any attempt to rein them back. He was complicit.”
All that is gone. You’re all in for the Big Lie and support the “Stop the Steal” projection of Trump’s extremely radical Right.
I will respect you again if you reconsider your lockstep loyalty to Trump
Have you forgotten how much a hateful angry liar Trump is? Or have you always thought he’s an honest and decent man? You claim not to like him, yet you have deep trust in him. That seems quite irrational.
You accuse me of “assertions and opinions”, and I agree. The same is true for you. The difference is I support my assertions and opinions with facts and evidence. When you assert a falsehood, I show facts to shine the light on it. You don’t do that in return.
Your beliefs are sacred and above examination. I think you regard conservatism as virtue and progress as evil. Evidence to the contrary must be ignored or dismissed as lies. This is the barrier to good faith discussion and civility.
This is “Chasm” that is tearing our country apart.
You see from your side only. I accept the nature of your beliefs, but not the content.
IF anything I’m saying here misrepresents the facts or is dishonest, I invite you to show me evidence that indicates so. I have always been open minded enough to look at any evidence, or even Prager video, you offer.
Sadly, all my offers for good faith, evidence supported, reasonable discussion have been futile. And sadly, I expect that will continue.
It is in your nature to react emotionally to different views. The Right is trained to resent, and even hate, those who have different views or speak truths they reject. We are called “Evil America-hating socialists, racists, commies, etc.” for disagreeing with you.
You are part of a radical Right minority, but your authoritarian leaders hold more power proportionately in our government.
That’s not what America is meant to be. It is not how a democratic republic thrives.
Instead of compromise, the radical Right chooses to demonize.
Instead of good faith communication, the radical Right chooses to dismiss and ignore.
Tragically that will never change.
As I said, you are a decent man. But decent men can be misled with indecent lies.
Jerry,
"All the Delusional can do is quote each other."
You're right, brother. And what we see from that is mass madness that has taken us to insurrection and to the very brink of fascism.
The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys criminals of Trump's Putsch are flipping. As with all organized crime cartels, this will eventually rise to Trump's ringleaders of revolution.
Then there are the inevitable active corruption and fraud cases against him in New York that are looming in his future. He will never be elected again.
Check this out:
Trump Criminal Cases Thread
https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1405143340056711168
The Weisselberg Path
https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1405290043770474496
When one of our national parties will not even approve an investigation in to an attempted insurrection against our country, then we are truly in danger of losing our country. The Republican party has become an enemy of the United States and should be treated accordingly. Trump's words and actions are that of a traitor and he should be treated accordingly.
Jerry,
You're right. The GQP has made it clear. They are the authoritarian party of sedition, and will stop at nothing short of permanent one-party rule.
The US is facing it's worst crisis since the Civil War, and the radical Right are bent on starting the next one. This radicalism will lead to the Balkanization of our country.
We have to stop them NOW. It begins with the prosecution and punishment of the Trump Crime Cartel.
It they get away with their crimes, it is over. That marks the end of the republic.
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