Real Murka
It’s not just a few wannabe-Hitlers, it’s the Republican party.
[T]he immediate danger to American democracy stems from the fact that the Republican party is justifying all this, remains united behind the man responsible, and, worst of all, actually wants to put him back in power. This is about Trump, but not just about Trump. This is what the Republican party is: the very few voices siding against Trumpism are being shunned and ostracized, and most Republicans are united in their quest to install authoritarian rule by a reactionary minority.
And even if conservatives aren’t necessarily on board with all the specifics of Trump’s conspiracy claims, the right in general is united behind the idea that progressives are out to destroy “real” America and must be stopped by whatever means. White conservatives consider themselves the sole proponents of “real America” and therefore entitled to rule, as is the party that focuses almost solely on their interests and sensibilities.
See for instance this tweet from the repellent Jim Jordan today:
What’s a fascist takeover compared to expensive gas?!
This is the basis on which 147 congressional Republicans voted to overturn the election results even after the assault on the Capitol. This is why the Republican party officially defended the violent attack of January 6 as “legitimate political discourse” and lashed out against the few Republicans who publicly dared to object. This is why Republicans are either explicitly running on the big lie or, at the very least, are lending legitimacy to the idea that there was something wrong with the 2020 election.
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And how are the people the hearings present as Team Normal, as standing up to Trump’s coup attempt, dealing with all this? Take Bill Barr: he’s on record saying he would vote for Trump in 2024. In his testimony for the committee as well as in his book, Barr has left no doubt that he believes Trump is either willfully pushing treasonous conspiracy theories or is completely detached from reality – yet Barr is still willing to help put him back in the White House.
Barr’s ability to rationalize this astonishing balancing act is the main reason I am skeptical that the hearings, by focusing narrowly on Trump, could succeed at turning Republicans away from him. When confronted with how he could possibly still support another Trump presidency during his book promotion tour earlier this year, Barr replied: “Because I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic party.” There it is: after everything we have been through, conservatives still see the Democrats (or progressives, or liberals, or the left – they see them as interchangeable) as the biggest threat.
I suppose that’s because Barr is a religious fanatic and a theocrat, and the Dems with all their faults (gender ideology very much among them) are not Team Theocracy.
It’s as if the big oil corporations have conspired to protest the policies of the current administration. They are reportedly making record profits, much beyond whatever profits the pullback on pipelines, fracking, and exploration have cost them. The big oil lobby is a powerful one in Washington. All the R’s I know are blaming Biden, but I really don’t think he has any control over it. Whatever happened to all the oil stockpiles that Trump allegedly hoarded during the crude oil price drop during Covid? The price actually went negative for a while and the oil companies were paying to have it taken off their hands to keep production numbers up. That could have all been propaganda as far as we know. Russian oil is literally a drop in the bucket to the U.S. demand, so blaming the war on Ukraine is merely scapegoating. Most of this speculation, but there do seem to be some politics at work here.
Jordan is only talking about the gas prices to stir the pot, he can afford to be driven around in his massive SUV no matter what the prices are. Like he has a clue what “real America” is about. Many of us want the insurrectionists brought to justice, including Trump, but Trump is slicker than owl shit on a brass doorknob, and he’ll probably Stupid or Entitle his way out of consequences as he’s always done. I’ll gladly pay higher gas prices if the unAmerican actions of Jan. 6th end up having real consequences for the perpetrators.
Oil prices will still be high in 2023 regardless of elections but hey, voters are stupid and irrational so that doesn’t really matter.
Barr isn’t doing a “balancing act.” He’s fallen onto the fascist side.
As a Real American I would like to see Jordan indicted for his role in the sexual abuse of wrestlers at The Ohio State University. It’s not even a secret.
https://www.jordanscandal.com/frequently-asked-questions
I bought a hybrid and I don’t drive all that much because I know that gas and oil are subject to the market fluctuations based on demand and supply. Gas prices don’t affect me as much as it does other Real Americans in their SUVs that get 14 mpg on premium gas who drive to the corner store to buy their Hostess Twinkies, or to the gun range with their AR-15 hunting rifles. More than a few of them could stand to ride a bicycle every once in a while.
As a Real American (and there are 330 million of us all with different opinions on a wide variety of subjects,) I want to have the full congress of elected representatives reviewing what happened on January 6 through the lens of an official who thinks that representative democracy is a good idea and that losers don’t get to try an insurrection to change the result. As a Real American (one of) I would like to have a party of people whose positions I don’t agree with that a): doesn’t call me a commie because I think that the public good can be served by spending money to promote the general welfare, and b): doesn’t think that we’re all out to put them in camps and destroy their way of life when we tell them that the climate needs their attention. I also want them to wake up from their Trump-induced hypnosis that makes their eyes go gaga and their brains shut down whenever he’s on stage making up something and saying “a lot of people are saying.”
As a Real American I want to see elected officials accept that sometimes they lose elections and it’s not all rigged against them. They don’t seem to think it’s rigged when they win, naturally.
As a Real American I want people to stop reacting and start thinking.