Wednesday, 12 May 2021

The growing GOP war on America

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The growing GOP war on America

We are witnessing the unraveling of our democracy, and the willingness of one major political party — half the country — to make that happen.

John Aravosis

May 12

US House Republicans just ejected Liz Cheney from their leadership, using a “voice vote” (all those in favor say “aye,” all those opposed say “no”) instead of an actual tally that would leave a record of who said yes and who said no.

Cheney, you’ll recall, was kicked out of the #3 House leadership post because she refuses to falsely claim that Trump won the election.

At the same time, the House held a hearing this morning about the January 6th Insurrection, and it included Trump’s acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller, who refused to send help for a good couple of hours after the rioters had taken control of the US Capitol building, with Vice President Pence and practically every member of Congress on their own, barricaded inside.

At one point, Miller claimed that Trump’s speech on January 6th played no role in inciting the crowd. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch angrily pointed out that Miller’s own written testimony for the hearing said that Trump’s speech did have an impact on the crowd. Oops. Miller also blamed “the media” for his failure to lift a finger to help stop the attempted violent overthrow of our government.

Manu Raju @mkraju

“My concerns regarding the appropriate and limited use of the military in domestic matters were heightened by commentary in the media about the possibility of a military coup or that advisors to the President were advocating the declaration of martial law.” — Trump’s ex-DOD head https://t.co/Tb9CFu8X8l

Zachary Cohen @ZcohenCNN

So there will likely be lots of news tomorrow, but don’t sleep on this hearing ... https://t.co/Z7ES9KJITt

Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman from Ohio who stands accused of ignoring the ongoing sexual assault of college wrestlers under his purview while he was the coach at Ohio State in the 1990s, claimed that there was nothing wrong with Republican House members opposing certification of the election in the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup — a coup attempt that was based on opposition to such certification.

And a third GOP House member, I didn’t catch his name, claimed that the real villains that day were EVERYONE BUT the Trump supporters who violently took over the US Capitol building. As he sees it, “it was the Trump supporters who lost their lives” that day, so they were the good guys.

Another piece of related news that I stumbled on yesterday, and you may not have heard: 120 retired generals and admirals (Trump supporters, of course) wrote an open letter not only making excuses for the Insurrection, but justifying another. Think “Swift Boat,” but now using the military to justify the violent overthrow of our democracy. It doesn’t get any more dangerous than that.

We are dealing with an opposition party that is openly-fascist, and hostile to democracy. They are not only rewriting the history of the last Insurrection, they are laying the groundwork for the next, should their growing legislative efforts in the states fails to steal future elections via a corrupt ballot box.

Bill Kristol @BillKristol

To be clear: The mainstream Republican position is now that what Trump did from November 3 on was justified, and that the Republican Party’s task is to increase his chances of success next time.

2024 looks particularly perilous. Not only will we have to deal with a slew of Republican-passed state laws limiting voting rights, but Republicans are also shifting the responsibility for certifying the election from state secretaries of state to state legislatures. They learned their lesson in Georgia in 2020, when the local Republican secretary of state refused Lindsey Graham’s and Donald Trump’s entreaties for him to steal the election for Trump. In the future, a Republican state legislature can simply overrule the will of the voters, and certify the Republican the victor even if the GOP candidate clearly didn’t win.

There’s a second big problem. As I’ve written before, if there’s a conflict while certifying the electoral votes in Congress, the election could be thrown to the US House. And come 2022, the House may be run by Republicans. Today’s House GOP wouldn’t bat an eye at overruling the will of the American people in the 2024 presidential election. They were willing to overrule it in 2020, and they’re now defending the violent Insurrection. Why wouldn’t they support a simple vote to steal the presidency? They would.

We are living in dangerous times. We are witnessing the unraveling of our democracy, with the willingness of one major political party — representing half the country — to make that happen. Donald Trump and the Republicans have never seen a line they weren’t willing to cross. Even the violent overthrow of our government wasn’t a line too far. We should expect everything, and prepare for anything, because the next few years aren’t going to be pretty.

Let me end, however, with one small ray of hope. GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump and support of Liz Cheney, just said today that he may not vote for Kevin McCarthy as speaker, should the Republicans take the House in 2022.

Adam Kinzinger @AdamKinzinger

3) he also (wrongly) assumes that people like me will vote for him for speaker, but the legislative terrorists in the freedom club wouldn’t, so he needs to be all in with them. It’s the cynical play that gives politicians the reputation we have...

This is important. The Speaker of the House is chosen by a vote in the House in which every member of both parties votes. The person getting the most votes — D or R — becomes Speaker. If the Republicans take the House, but only by a few seats, and Kinzinger and a small coterie of sane-Republicans refuse to vote for McCarthy, the Democratic candidate could win the speakership even though the GOP won the election. And wouldn’t that be delicious.

Other Interesting Stuff

A few more items in the news this week…

Some people are just dumb

US Consumer Product Safety Commission @USCPSC

Do not fill plastic bags with gasoline.

The inflation risk might be exaggerated

David Frum points us to a Twitter thread explaining that the risk of inflation might not be as high as some are saying.

David Frum @davidfrum

Thread on how to understand price rises 12 months after a pandemic-caused price collapse

Council of Economic Advisers @WhiteHouseCEA

Inflation increased at a 4.2% rate year-over-year last month and 0.8% month-over-month. Core inflation—without food/energy—rose 3.0% year-over-year and 0.9% month-over-month 1/

An alt-right self-own

A far-right celebrity thought it would be cool to broadcast himself breaking and entering into the US Capitol building during the Insurrection. A move that just got one of his fans arrested.