GOP Gaslighting on COVID Relief, Investigation into Causes of Jan 6 Insurrection
The nation is awash in gaslighting of the sort that would make any horror movie director proud.
A side visit to Google/Psychology Today provide us with a succinct description of the term:
Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders.
A COVID-19 relief bill, the January 6th insurrection, and confirmation hearings for Biden administration appointees who don’t happen to be white males are all contaminated by these misleading (at best) assertions made with the express intent of confusing people. (I’m posting a separate article by Laura Clawson explaining the confirmation hearings)
Exhibit A in today’s column will be President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which will be voted on in the House this weekend. This legislation is something Americans want and need; absent the fiscal stimulus
Via Huffington Post:
According to a survey conducted by The Economist/YouGov, 66% of Americans back Biden’s plan, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks, added unemployment assistance, an expanded child tax credit, and hundreds of billions of dollars for schools and vaccine distribution. A survey released Tuesday by Morning Consult showed the plan polling even higher, at 76% with all Americans, including 60% of Republicans.
Congressional bills rarely see this kind of public support, especially in a political atmosphere as divided as this one.
Republican Mayors and Governors (officials who have some sort of contact with reality) are supportive of the bill.
GQP members of Congress have been trotted out for media interviews trying to put spin on why they will be unanimous in opposing the relief package.
A primary complaint is that public schools aren’t open in many areas. Considering that Republican have actively worked to undermine public education for decades and that school openings are largely handled at the district level, this is some Grade A malarkey.
While they’re fond of saying the CDC has said it’s safe to open schools, they’re not so fond of disclosing what measures health officials at all levels of government say are needed to open up classrooms. Masks and handwashing are meaningless unless there is adequate screening and --most importantly-- ventilation.
District 50 Congressman Darrell Issa is all-in on the party line.
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Backpedaling on the implications of the January 6 assault on the Capitol by Republicans was front and center during hearings earlier this week.
Despite evidence to the contrary, hardcore Trump supporters in Congress have repeatedly tried to shift responsibility for the insurrection onto others, pointing at everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to antifa.
Sen. Ron Johnson’s blockbuster evidence ‘proving’ that what happened was not as it has been portrayed involved reading a column published at a couple of right wing sites based on his personal observations and “not tainted by any news or information from outside sources, so they do not contain many details that are public.”
The author of the column included his belief that Antifa was involved, something Trumplicans have been saying for weeks and has consistently been proven to be untrue. (One individual with known mental health issues who may have participated in left demonstrations was arrested and released.)
Faux News in-house white nationalist Tucker Carlson has been adamant in stating and restating his denial of the idea that white nationalists had a significant presence — or, perhaps, any presence — on that day.
On his show Monday night, Carlson played a clip from a Senate hearing considering the nomination of Merrick Garland to serve as attorney general. In the clip, Garland said that he would “supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6.”
“There’s no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6,” Carlson said in response. “That’s a lie.”
Exactly zero law enforcement/intelligence agency witnesses, according to the Associated Press, were willing to back up the assertions being made as part of the right wing attack on reality.
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chair of the Rules Committee, asked the security officials if there was any doubt the riot was a planned attack and carried out by white nationalist and extremist groups.
None of the witnesses disputed the characterization of the facts of Jan. 6.
It’s not like there weren’t warning signs. And, gosh, think how things might have turned out differently if Republicans in Congress hadn’t decided to participate in The Big Lie. I’ll bet a couple of them could have even tipped off law enforcement that some bad was in the works.
From Vox:
Furthermore, as observers of right-wing internet forums took note of in the weeks before January 6, the insurrection was clearly organized online by Trump supporters who weren’t trying to hide what they hoped to achieve.
Finally, many insurrectionists arrested in connection with the riot have cited their support for Trump as the reason they were in Washington, DC, on January 6, saying things like, “I’m here to see what my President called me to DC for.”
The hearings at the House weren't any better, as David Neiwert explains:
Republicans rolled out their narrative response to Democrats who were intent to see a law enforcement crackdown on the far-right extremist elements who assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 during Wednesday’s hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee on “The Rise of Domestic Terrorism in America.” It resembled a team version of the “let’s throw shit at the wall and see what sticks” strategy, but beneath it all was a thread: Blame everything on Black Lives Matter and left-wing antifascists.
The instances mentioned above are just high profile examples of the sad state of the Republican party in the US.
There will be plenty more lies trotted out at the CPAC gathering this weekend, where the former occupant of the White House will insist on any candidates carrying the party banner must publicly affirm his Big Lie about the election.
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And then there’s this blast from the past...
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