We know Claremont Institute ‘s pro-dictatorship scholar John Eastman urged Pence to cheat and steal the election. He also blamed the 1/6 coup mob’s anger on Pence not giving them what they wanted (Steve Bannon’s in the same camp). Eastman isn’t an outlier at the institute and far from the only intellectual ready to support right-wing authoritarianism. Not that these thinkers are anything new, but they’re working with a Republican Party much more likely to grant their wish.
“In a second Trump presidency, however, the burglars will arrive already knowing how to bypass the alarms and disable the locks.” — a discussion of why a second Trump term will be much worse than round one. Trump knows better what he can get away with (pretty much everything) and he’ll waste no time putting loyal fascists in every important position. Some of them are already there.
And when Republicans get a lock on government, I imagine this anti-Semite will probably want them to Do Something about Jews, just as the Qanonites expect to see lots of people locked up for non-existent child molestation (like one QAnon influencer who hides his own child-molestation conviction). And court prophets like gay-hating Franklin Graham will assure their flock that Trump and the Republicans are doing God’s work fighting the gays. And decent Republican officials who admit Biden won continue to face death threats. Which is domestic terrorism but we don’t seem to be doing much about it.
Over in Florida, where wanna-be Trump successor “Typhoid Ron” DeSantis is joining in the Republican voting-suppression efforts, several University of Florida professors were going to testify as expert witnesses in a case challenging the new voting laws. The university won’t allow it. It’s not that DeSantis necessarily ordered it, it may be they simply want to obey before he asks.
Miami PD Captain Javier Ortiz has a long history of “citizen complaints for beatings, false arrests and bullying.” The city has spent sizable amounts settling lawsuits involving Ortiz but it can’t get rid of him and nobody in office wants to risk their career by holding cops accountable. It’s the same in many states.
Then there’s the idea sheriffs have an authority to interpret the laws that overrides the president. Given the conservative stance of some of the sheriffs profiled (not all), I suspect that like a lot of right-wingers ranting about government overreach they don’t apply that to repressive rules passed by Republicans.
It seems like Ross Douthat, who’s never been sex-positive, is also science-negative, and thinks Lyme Disease might be a bioweapon just like Covid! And this is a guy with a regular column in the NYT.
I wrote recently about how the Federalist published a column supporting Roy Moore hitting on teenagers and followed that up by whining they didn’t necessarily agree so don’t yell at them! The Wall Street Journal, in printing a letter from Trump on how he won in 2020, pulls the same crap (The WaPo dissects the bullshit)
Fox is now pushing Tucker Carlson’s new documentary claiming 1/6 was a liberal false flag. I don’t doubt lots of Republican voters will make the choice to believe it. Marjorie Taylor Greene compares the coup squad to the Founding Fathers. Of course Republicans have been comparing it to violence at BLM protests, but the two are not comparable
“You know, Satan’s agenda is behind all of this … right now there are classrooms in the United States that are teaching cannibalism.” — another Totally Rational anti-vaxxer
Then there’s the third of Republican voters who think violence may be necessary to save the U.S. Which I think is more of a rationalization — some of them have been yearning to crack down on The Other for years.
Paul Campos suggests Tuesday’s election results show too many people still don’t accept (or worse, support) that Republicans are American fascists. Brian Klaas says we need to protect democracy now, because it’s a lot easier than rebuilding it later.
One 1/6 coup member bragged that being blonde and white she’d never go to jail. Prosecutors say with an attitude like that she’ll break the law again unless she does see jail time. Sentencing is this morning — it won’t solve our problems if she does jail time but it would be nice to see she’s wrong about her immunity. I’m less optimistic about Kyle Rittenhouse.
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