Why Republicans Are So Determined to Distort the Truth About the Capitol Attack
On Monday a small band of U.S. Capitol Police officers delivered vivid, emotional testimony about a previously unthinkable eventthe day a partisan mob stormed the Capitol to try to overturn an American election. Many Americans had already seen the sounds and images of that shocking day, but there was something about their description that brought the event more vividly to life.
Yet its unlikely to change hearts and minds, at least not Republican hearts and minds. In GOP circles, two things are true at once. First, large majorities of Republican voters disapprove of the January 6 rioters. At the same time, large majorities still approve of Donald Trump, and Liz Cheneythe Republican most prominently intent on investigating and exposing what happenedis less popular with Republicans than renowned conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene.
In fact, Cheney might now be the least popular Republican in the entire Republican Party, in spite of her consistently conservative voting record and her support for Donald Trumps re-election in 2020. The reason is simple. She has violated the prime directive of negative partisanship. Even if shes right to be upset by the riots, shes attacking her own team. Its the responsibility of GOP politicians to always, always train their fire on the left.
Negative partisanship is a simple concept with profound implications. At its most basic, it means that the parties hang together mainly out of sheer hatred of the other team, rather than a shared sense of purpose. When negative partisanship dominates, a political coalition is united far more by animosity than policy. The policy priorities are malleable and flexible, so long as the politician rhetorically punches the right people.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-republicans-determined-distort-truth-210617113.html
calimary
(80,521 posts)Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.
Gee, I guess I must break that commandment about a thousand times a day.
Faux pas
(14,562 posts)"others" are straight up tribalists. That's totally reflected in how unevolved they are. DISGUSTIPATING
Response to Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
lees1975
(3,694 posts)Let's give some credit here to Nancy Pelosi, who may be one of the sharpest, most savvy Democratic speakers of the house ever to serve. The Democrats just capped off today an infrastructure and resolution bill that is highly popular, gets Biden credit for the kind of bi-partisanship he promised to deliver and it comes on a day when it is announced that the economy, stimulated by the previous bill passed by Democrats, is moving along at a clip of 6.5 percent and the economic downturn from COVID is over. ***applause***
The hearings are moving forward, playing out for everyone to see. The testimony of the four police officers, which came out at the very beginning of the whole thing, is spreading on social media like wildfire and getting lots of good ratings for the news sources that are playing it over and over and over and over.
This will have bigger impact than Watergate did. Watergate cost the Republicans one term in the White House. That's because most of the GOP acknowledged that Nixon was a criminal and were ready to impeach and remove him from office. This will have a bigger cost politically because they're not doing that now. There should be enough material in this to last for a while, keep people engaged and coming back for more and it's apparently already being packaged and distributed via social media.
Those four officers were genuine, the emotion was still very real and very troublesome, and there's photographs and video to support everything they said.