The choice is stark.
trump
Supporters
Before Biden bowed out, a meme was going around among Trump supporters.
I’m not going to label his followers as this meme does, but anyone who can look at Trump and not see how completely unhinged he is almost all of the time, how uneducated he appears to be, how incapable of critical thought he seems to be — I just don’t understand.
I freely admitted that Biden was showing some mental deterioration. I never worshipped the man: I was only support him to do a job. Many Trump supporters, however, seem almost to worship the man. He literally can do no wrong.
And even if he does wrong they overlook it. The same individual posted this:
Signs 2
During our trips to Florida this summer, I noticed several interesting billboards. Many of them were theological; one was political:
Stolen elections have catastrophic consequences
This notion is perhaps the most loaded statement I’ve read in recent memory. It’s certainly the most terrifying.
From the perspective of those who financed the billboard it is a statement about the 2020 election and the ever-persistent myth that somehow the Democrats committed election fraud. The complete lack of evidence for this is no matter: those who hold this view simply acknowledge non-facts as evidence. Those of us firmly grounded in reality are simply and willfully ignorant.
But just what are those catastrophic consequences? Again, from their perspective, it’s multifaceted. First, there’s simply the idea that an unelected individual is currently holding the nation’s highest office. Were that true, it would be catastrophic. But there’s a second notion hiding in that statement: what are people who believe this — in their own eyes, good and God-fearing patriots, one and all — to do about it? A recent article in Newsweek points out that there are renewed calls from the far right for civil war:
[Trump’s post on Truth Social] warning that 2024 will be the new 1776 is in line with other threats of looming civil wars in the U.S. made by Trump supporters following the New York jury verdict on Thursday which found the former president guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money trial.
Newsweek
In Boston University’s BU Today, staff members write,
A recent Washington Post headline says: “In America, talk turns to something not spoken of for 150 years: Civil war.” The story references, among others, Stanford University historian Victor Davis Hanson, who asked in a National Review essay last summer: “How, when, and why has the United States now arrived at the brink of a veritable civil war?” Another Washington Post story reports how Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King recently posted a meme warning that red states have “8 trillion bullets” in the event of a civil war. And a poll conducted last June by Rasmussen Reports found that 31 percent of probable US voters surveyed believe “it’s likely that the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years.”
BU Today
The billboard, then, suggests to informed drivers that a civil war might be the necessary outcome of such Democratic duplicity.
The attempted assassination of Trump will only add to this.
What politicians need to be doing now is talking us back from this brink. Biden and the Democrats seem to be doing this. What will Trump do? Will he try to quell this anger or will he stoke it? I don’t think there’s any doubt about how the man will react.
Those of us who warned friends and family around us who supported Trump in 2016 that he is a dangerous man continually feel more vindicated, but right now, I’d rather be proved wrong.
Indignation
Those on the far right are quite indignant about Trump’s recent conviction.
This suggests that America is under attack, and by terrorists no less. We went to war as a result. Some of these people want war as well — a second civil war. Perhaps talking about it could help, so I asked “Why?” when I saw this post. We’re facing an attack from within, came the response.
Another friend, from college, pasted a suggested new American flag on his social media feed:
“Would you be reacting the same way if the ONLY difference was that it was Biden instead of Trump?” I asked.
“That would very much depend on the facts of the case. It’s the whole point, frankly,” he replied.
I clarified my question: “But I’m simply asking if EVERYTHING was EXACTLY the same, with the only difference being it was Biden and not Trump.”
Silence.
The last post really hits at the underlying cultic qualities of Trump devotees.
The Announcement
NFT trading cards. The dumbass is peddling NFT trading cards. You know, like baseball cards, only dumber.
Major Announcement
Trump is set to make “a major announcement” tomorrow. “America needs a superhero,” he declares in his announcement of the coming announcement. He’s already said he’s running for president again. All of us with any sense realize a second Trump term is the worst possible thing for our country. What could it be? Is he re-announcing because the first announcement was such a flop?
And what the hell is up with the imagery in this clip?
Destruction
With Keri Lake taking Trump’s example to heart and refusing to concede an obviously-lost election, I’m afraid we’re seeing what will now be the typical Republican reaction to election loss: deny, deny, deny.
Trump did so much damage to our country, but this Republican denial of reality as a basic election operating principle is the most harmful. It tears at the very foundation of our democratic institutions, and it leads to previously-unthinkable insanities, like the ostensible leader of the party calling for the dissolution of the Constitution and the party saying nothing to condemn such dangerous rhetoric. Republicans have not rejected Trump even when he literally suggested destroying our country.
There is no hope for the Republican party. Just when I think it can’t fall deeper, it does.
Spark
Two images that came through my Twitter feed over the last few days. The first: a rather succinct overview of Trump supporters.
Then a graphic representation of the same idea.
Latest Low
For the last six years now, we’ve watched Donald Trump and over and over thought, “Okay, that’s surely the new low. He can’t sink lower than that.” And then he does. And we all think, “Okay, surely that’s the new low. How could he sink lower?” And then he does.
We watch his cult and wonder, “Will that be the thing that will break some supporters away from him?” And we know it won’t, but then the new low comes, and we think, “Surely they won’t put up with that.” And they do.
So now it appears that Trump had nuclear secrets in his basement, was asked to return them and refused, was subpoenaed to return them and refused. Surely this is the new low. Surely this — just shy of espionage at best — is the breaking point.
Of course, it isn’t.
“Surely, Donald Trump stealing nuclear secrets will be enough to break away Republicans from him.”
if y’all haven’t learned this lesson now you never will.
The man can eat a live baby on national television and not a single Republican voter would give a shit.
Rick Wilson
Lestje B. Juddged elucidated it:
If it’s anything shy of the ACTUAL launch codes, then Fox et. al. will minimize it to the point where the rank and file cultist can buy into it.
And even if it IS actual launch codes, it’s still 90/10 that it doesn’t move the needle a single bit.
Lestje B. Juddged
Tristan Snell framed the significance succinctly:
He did not take a few innocent items for memorabilia. He took the Crown Jewels of classified government documents to his home in Florida.
Tristan Snell
The GOP’s reaction will be predictable, and it will show that the party has become a threat to national security.
Religion and Politics
One year later, the breakdown still doesn’t shock.
Thread of Democracy
It could have been worse.
More footage from inside the #Capitol today. I believe we were the first crew inside for some time. Had a first hand view of the chaos and the fury @itvnews pic.twitter.com/nyZtoc4IP3
— Sophie Alexander (@SophieAlex1) January 6, 2021
When Sen. James Lankford was speaking and an aide informed him that so-called protesters had entered the building, that announcement could have come in a flurry of gun shots. After all, it’s not hard to imagine that the majority of the rioters were armed.
#BREAKING: Senators pause Electoral College debate amid Capitol Hill protests.
Aide to Sen. James Lankford: "Protesters are in the building." pic.twitter.com/GNOCrtpAuN
— The Hill (@thehill) January 6, 2021
If this many people had charged the capital with guns blazing, the capital police would not have stood a chance.
Once they’d achieved that, the insurrectionists’ plans seem fairly obvious:
They came with zip ties to do in DC what they could not do in Michigan. And once they zip-tied them, we all know they wouldn’t have been content with just this:
Or this.
Or even this.
No, they had different things in mind.
Everyone who incited this needs to face justice. We need to see Rudy Guiliani standing before a judge.
The president’s lawyer, earlier today: “Let’s have trial by combat” pic.twitter.com/DxQDX4JIGs
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) January 6, 2021
Josh Hawley needs to be removed from the senate.
And Donald Trump should be impeached and convicted immediately in order to prevent him from running for federal office again.
That anyone needs even to consider the validity of these last three statements — let alone the fact that millions would dispute them, and some violently — shows the hole into which America has fallen.
That anyone would ever consider voting Republican again shows the hole into which America has fallen.
That (to my knowledge) not a single person was arrested for this immediately shows the hole into which America has fallen.
That almost every single inhabitant in America is not out marching in the streets, shouting these things in a deafening roar, shows the hole into which American has fallen.