BTRTN: Please Stop Saying That "America Is Better Than This." 197 Republicans Just Proved Otherwise.

[reggieandlee]

Born To Run The Numbers reflects on all the pundits, politicians, and people on the street who are commenting on the events of the past two weeks and saying "America is better than this." Is it really?

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2021/01/btrtn-please-stop-saying-that-america.html

Excerpts: "We hear it from pundits and politicians...The variations go like this: 'We are better than this.' 'America is better than this.'
Such phrases are usually presented as some sort of self-evident truism, even though they are in fact unsubstantiated assertion. All those pundits and politicians want to believe that the violent mob storming the United States Capitol under the direction of the President represents a microscopic sliver of the population and does not represent a significant percentage of our population...
"We have now learned that the foot soldiers of Trump's insurrection included the CEO of a Chicago-based data analytics company, a State Senator from Pennsylvania, off-duty police and firemen, and current and former members of the U.S. military. In other words, people you might chat with at your kid's soccer game...
"Still, however, as hideous as January 6 was, what happened in the House of Representatives the following Wednesday, January 13, managed to rival the ugliness of the prior week, though in a very different way...an astonishing 197 Republicans in the House refused to impeach Trump for essentially leading an attempted coup of the United States of America and then making absolutely no effort to stop it as it raged out of control...
"Perhaps one reason why people believe America is 'better than this' is because we did throw Donald Trump out at the ballot box. Yes, Biden was able to defeat a sickening, amoral, shameless, and sinister man by a margin of 4.5%.So have at it, pundits, politicians, and placaters: feel free to tell the world that “America is actually 4.5 percentage points better than what happened on January 6.”

[njhoneybadger]

1. And Americans aren't stupid.

[lark]

2. 30-40% of Repugs are murderously, gleefully stupid.

The fascists have made great inroads since 2016 and are a significant part of America. Until the white nationalists are held to account for their lies and treachery we will not even start to get our country back. The FBI needs to make this a priority! As a 2nd benefit, we'd rid a lot of police forces and military bases of the traitors and it would make others think twice about trying to overturn American democracy.

[Ferryboat]

3. Sobering assessment of who we are as a nation.