Trump’s Stop the Steal campaign failed miserably. Biden won legitimately. Every lawsuit failed. The Kraken was not released. None of the supposed evidence panned out. The Republicans’ attempt to prove fraud in Arizona looks fishy as ever which hasn’t stopped Trump worshippers threatening state government officials.
Nevertheless the campaign has become incredibly damaging to our democracy. Millions of Republicans have chosen to believe that they were cheated, their voices shut out. Then Republicans such as Josh Hawley and Rep. Elise Stefanik, having egged on their voters to question the results, then turn around and say they’re just raising issues their voters are concerned about.
In reality, Stefanik is a baldfaced liar and Trump toady who claims Republicans trying to overthrow the election represents a defense of the constitution. Unsurprisingly she’s now poised to replace Liz Chaney as #3 in the House Republican power structure. Cheney, as Adam Serwer chronicles, has always been a hard-right extremist embracing Republican bullshit (Obama’s a Muslim! Democrats hate America! Defending terrorists in court is treason) but now that she’s defied the Republican God-King on the non-existent election fraud, her deviation from the new Republican orthodoxy won’t save her. As Serwer says, “The tragedy is not that she might suffer for her folly, but that American democracy will. Her latter-day epiphany is welcome, but it also comes far too late.”
And that’s where we are, with Republicans setting up absolute loyalty to Ex President Man Baby as its only moral standard, and doing everything they can to make sure that next time when they try to steal the White House. This is not good, even if, as suggested here, being the Party of Trump works against them.
In other news:
Rep. Mo Brooks told the Sedition Day insurrectionists that it was time to take names and kick ass. Like other supporters of the coup, he’s been sued — but he refuses to accept the paperwork. Oh, sedition day rioters are still being busted by their social media posts.
Newsmax head and Stop The Steal advocate Chris Ruddy has a long history of Republican bullshit — but the bill may be coming due.
Self-proclaimed prophets who saw Trump returning to the White House last year in a cloud of glory are still insisting they’re right. They’re not happy that some conservative Christian leaders are trying to rein them in. After all, they’re not going to get the YouTube hits and mailing lists of gullible marks (a big part of Ruddy’s business plan) if people stop listening. Josh Hawley, for examples, is out to milk his new book by offering it free for a $75 donation — a recurring donation if you don’t uncheck the pre-checked box on the form.
Speaking of prophets, Stop The Steal attorney Lin Wood “allegedly believed that he would be appointed to the highest seat in the U.S. justice system based on a prophecy he heard in a YouTube video and a conspiracy theory that Chief Justice John Roberts would be revealed to be part of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring and was being blackmailed by liberals to rule in their favor.”
Fraser Sherman's Blog 