Republican Lunatics Have Redefined the Party's Brand
Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers would likely need more funding for security to protect them not just from outside threats, but also potentially from their own colleagues, whom she described as ‘the enemy within.’
Asked by a reporter what she meant by that phrase Pelosi responded, "It means we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress."
On Wednesday, US Capitol Police arrested a West Virginia man, armed with a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition near the US Capitol. In court documents, authorities identify the man as 71-year-old Dennis Westover. According to a police affidavit, Westover had "Stop the Steal paperwork" with him "that had a list of Senators and Representatives" in both the US Congress and West Virginia state house, along with their contact information.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Wednesday said it stopped a possible bomb plot that might have targeted Gov. Gavin Newsom. Agents said they arrested a Napa Valley man who had five pipe bombs and who they believe made threats against the governor.
Although high profile lawsuits have been repeatedly swatted down for lack of evidence by judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, there are still Trump supporters in the US Congress who will not publicly declare that Joe Biden won the election.
If you don’t believe this is all connected, congratulations, you should run for office as a Republican.
Republicans have appointed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the House Education and Labor Committee; she has claimed the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook was a hoax.
https://twitter.com/funder/status/1354919728888881158?s=20
From an article in the New York Times examining GOP ties to extremist groups:
Before being elected to Congress last year, Ms. Greene used social media in 2019 to endorse executing top Democrats and has suggested that the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was a staged “false flag” attack. The liberal group Media Matters for America reported on Thursday that Ms. Greene also speculated on Facebook in 2018 that California wildfires might have been started by lasers from space, promoting a theory pushed by followers of QAnon.
https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1355198214626963457?s=20
And these ties are not limited to Congress member Greene; Representatives Lauren Boebert (Colorado), Matt Gaetz (Florida), Paul Gosar (Arizona), Andy Biggs (Arizona), and Mo Brooks (Alabama) are all shown to have ties to extremists who have advocated violence as a political solution.
But in signaling either overt or tacit support, a small but vocal band of Republicans now serving in the House provided legitimacy and publicity to extremist groups and movements as they built toward their role in supporting Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and the attack on Congress.
Aitan D. Goelman, a former federal prosecutor who helped convict the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, said that when elected officials — or even candidates for office — took actions like appearing with militia groups or other right-wing groups it “provides them with an added imprimatur of legitimacy.”
THIS is a real headline in a respectable mainstream media publication, not something the Onion posted: GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser.
https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1355137511287382016?s=20
Are there Republicans other than Mitt Romney or Jeff Flake willing to challenge this acceptance of wingnuttery in the party? Apparently not. Watch for elected GOP officials “retiring” rather than challenging the vociferous supporters of the #TrumpDeathCult.
Republicans are stuck in a feedback loop. Between extreme gerrymandering and right wing media that thrives on division, disinformation, and outright conspiracy theory, the party will keep moving deeper into Crazytown.
Crazy has become a feature, not a bug.
https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1354947355431329792?s=20
At the state level, Republicans are busy introducing legislation to ensure that only their party can win in the future.
In Arizona, the Republican chair of the state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state’s certification of its electoral votes.
In Georgia, legislation introduced by freshman state Sen. Jason Anavitarte would require absentee voters to provide copies of their photo identification two separate times to cast a ballot. Instead of the current signature-verification process, voters would need to provide a photocopy of their driver’s license, passport or other valid ID card when applying for an absentee ballot. Then, another photocopy of that ID would have to be placed in the envelope used to mail back the ballot.
Even though Democrats are now in power on Capitol Hill, what’s happening with the Republican Party poses a grave danger to America’s democracy. And we need to be concerned about more than just Washington DC; this descent into conspiracy laden authoritarianism impacts nearly every locality in the United States.
https://twitter.com/evaposner/status/1354858928509599746?s=20
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