General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe GOP is sick. It didn't start with Trump -- and won't end with him. : Dana Milbank (WaPo)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/dana-milbank-republican-destructionists-book-excerpt/Archived: https://archive.ph/uePpp
Excellent essay.
On Jan. 6, 2021, an armed mob invited and incited by President Donald Trump smashed barriers, overpowered police and stormed the Capitol. The insurrectionists scaled the scaffolding erected for President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration and proceeded to sack the seat of government for the first time since the War of 1812.
Called to Washington by Trump, who promised a wild time, and sent to the Capitol with instructions to fight like hell, the mob halted Congresss certification of Bidens victory, sending lawmakers and staff fleeing for their lives. At least seven people died in the riot or its aftermath, and more than 140 police officers were hurt. Some 845 insurrectionists, several with ties to white-supremacist or violent extremist groups, have faced charges including seditious conspiracy.
Many Americans were shocked that Trump, after first considering a plan to seize voting machines, had orchestrated an attempted coup, knowingly dispatching armed attackers to Capitol Hill and then refusing for 187 minutes to call off the assault. And many Americans have been shocked anew to see elected Republicans, after initially condemning Trumps attack on democracy, excuse his actions and rationalize the violent insurrection itself as legitimate political discourse.
But a sober look at history might have lessened the shock, for the seeds of sedition had been planted earlier a quarter-century earlier in that same spot on the West Front of the Capitol.
...
Other factors sped the partys turn toward nihilism: Concurrent with the rise of Gingrich was the ascent of conservative talk radio, followed by the triumph of Fox News, followed by the advent of social media. Combined, they created a media environment that allows Republican politicians and their voters to seal themselves in an echo chamber of alternative facts. Globally, south-to-north migration has ignited nationalist movements around the world and created a new era of autocrats. The disappearance of the Greatest Generation, tempered by war, brought to power a new generation of culture warriors.
But the biggest cause is race. The parties re-sorted themselves after the epochal changes of the 1960s, which expanded civil rights, voting rights and immigration. Richard Nixons Southern Strategy began an appeal to White voters alienated by racial progress, and, in the years that followed, a new generation of Republicans took that racist undertone and made it the melody.
Turbineguy
(37,312 posts)who's only program is to put trump in the White House.
People in Arizona should renew their Driver's License early, before the state government is no longer able to do that.
erronis
(15,217 posts)Thank you Dana for this well done piece on just how dangerous the GQP have become and how they have been actively, knowingly destroying our democracy in order to replace it with a authoritarian Orban-like state for over 25 years. They are NOT patriots they are fascists hiding behind the cross and the flag, just like Sinclair warned us.
I urge all to read and to LISTEN to this essay. Also share with others.
erronis
(15,217 posts)But they wont listen, because of the biggest problem today: news silos. The Fox audience is not and will not hear any of this. They have by now been entirely walled off from important, basic truths, including even what the J6 Committee has uncovered under oath. Folks like my mom watch Fox News all day and then unwaveringly believe they are well-informed as a result, even while being shielded from revelations about what happened that day, and the ongoing threats to democracy America faces. Gone are the days of Walter Cronkite. Until a way is found to breach these silos, the crazies will grow only crazier. Because knowledge that their supporters are walled off from reality and can be flooded with propaganda has only encouraged increasingly outrageous conduct from folks like Trump (but not just Trump), who have now literally come to believe any lie can be sold as truth - much as Putin believes he can literally get away with anything. How to reach the Fox audience? Unless we can find a way solve that and simply reach these folks (so that even if they are not brought around, they will at least not see the rest of their fellow Americans constantly demonized as literally evil), things will never improve.
Truer words were never spoken @gregsmith! My mom is in the same boat as your mom and its incredibly painful. Mine will outright deny verifiable facts (roll the video-tape!) then laugh in my face about it and think its all a big joke and that my distress over the situation is just funny. I largely avoid any topics that could set off such a conversationwhich is pretty much any topic of any value or concern. Im sorry if you face anything similar. It is truly baffling how a former Peace Corps volunteer and highly educated person could fall so far down this rabbit hole. But I guess decades of drinking poison in the form of Faux News will do that to a person.
It's important to add that the political disinformation travels hand-in-hand with blatant lies about policies and even science. That's because policy lies are a pay-to-play service doled out to special interests, mainly by the GOP. That pay-to-play service has become more lucrative, obfuscated and corrupted since Citizens United.
Just off the top of my head, over the last three decades, the GOP has leveraged rightwing media to flood the zone with lies on behalf of the health insurance, tobacco, gun and -- most of all -- fossil fuel industries. To politicians who treat voters so cynically in order to gain power, selling policy positions to the highest bidders and then lying about them incessantly comes naturally.
CatWoman
(79,294 posts)and when questioned about current and past events, Trumpists proudly tout all the research they've done and try to portray themselves the smartest guys/gals in the room. All the while spouting ridiculous lies and totally debunked bullshit. They are STILL trying to push the "Nancy Pelosi turned down Trump's National Guard Help Request" narrative.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,309 posts)erronis
(15,217 posts)Deep State Witch
(10,421 posts)It didn't start with Gingrich. It started in 1980 with Ronnie Ray-gun and the "welfare queens".
erronis
(15,217 posts)Hard to tell when the bowel movement really gained momentum. Nixon and his deviousness contributed to the atmosphere. Raygun was probably more groomed to be the face of the new libertarian repuglicon party. He may not have even known what he was spouting - not a "method" actor.
Wounded Bear
(58,622 posts)Roger Stone anybody?
Deep State Witch
(10,421 posts)Both of them were loathsome human beings.
Grasswire2
(13,565 posts)...is why the "strategy" of "Look forward, not back" has been a horrible, horrible way for Dems to govern.
The Right will not stop until they are made to feel significant pain.
Shoulda happened decades ago.