January 6 should've moderated the GOP. It did the opposite.

[Nevilledog]

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ryan cooper
@ryanlcooper
"when you do talk to people on the right, as I do frequently, the 2020 uprisings after George Floyd’s murder have shaped their consciousness in a way that cannot be overstated."

January 6 should’ve moderated the GOP. It did the opposite.
Sam Adler-Bell on why scorched-earth radicals are winning the battle for the soul of conservatism.
vox.com
9:44 AM · Jan 9, 2022

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22815765/january-6-capitol-insurrection-conservatism-sam-adler-bell


I remember watching the assault on the US Capitol last January in a state of complete disbelief. Even today, a year later, it’s hard to believe that it actually happened.

But I also remember thinking, once the shock of that day subsided, that the insurrection would be a transformative moment for the Republican Party. It simply had to be. The election lies, the inflammatory rhetoric, the misinformation — it all led to the violence that day. And if that wasn’t enough, the fact that people were marching through the Capitol building chanting “hang Mike Pence” seemed like it should’ve prompted a course correction from the GOP.

Instead, the Republican Party has become more extreme and more illiberal. We haven’t seen any eruptions of violence like the riot on January 6, but the GOP remains in thrall to Trump, Republicans across the country continue to believe the lies about the 2020 election, and the party appears to be laying the legal and rhetorical groundwork for something like an electoral coup in 2024.

So I reached out to Sam Adler-Bell, the co-host (along with Matthew Sitman) of the podcast Know Your Enemy, an indispensable listen for anyone interested in the conservative movement, and the author of a recent essay in the New Republic about the future of the American right.

*snip*

[David__77]

1. "Should have?" Why on earth is that so?

Had they done that they would have politically collapsed. There’s no “unity” way out of this.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. Unless we had segregated the groups from the start

Those who broke the law and criminally stormed into the capitol - and - the yahoos who were simply there.

If we had done that then the yahoos *might* have denounced the latter.

[unblock]

2. They have no mechanism to moderate themselves. They only know how to move rightward

[3Hotdogs]

3. 70% of those who in polling list themselves as Republican, believe in nonsense. Nonsense about

vaccines, The Steal, Antifa, Critical Race and so forth.

So

If you are a politician and you want to win your primary, how will you vote in matters of importance?

[dwayneb]

4. Most Republican Representatives don't believe the big lie

Adam Kinzinger Republican Representative on the Jan 6th committee was on Margaret Hoover's Firing line today.

He states that very few Republican Representatives actually believe that Trump won the election. Rather, they pretend to believe it in order to placate their base and to assure their re-election.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/firing-line/video/adam-kinzinger-kigaed/

This doesn't surprise me because US Representatives and Senators are by and large not stupid. Most are lawyers who understand well that there is no evidence to support election fraud. But these "Republicans" are still perfectly willing to light a match to our Constitution simply in order to keep their seats. It is truly disgusting, but that's where we've gotten to here in the USA.

What none of these fools have figured out is that if and when they do manage to install an autocrat through some form of legislative coup, that everyone will pay the price and it will be huge. The chaos that will ensue will bring our economy to a standstill and our stock market will take the biggest slide in its history. No one can really predict what will happen, but history tells us that it will be catastrophic to EVERYONE not just the "liberals" that they fear so much.