2021-11-15
Both Bannon and Meadows are clearly at the center of what is an insurrectionist conspiracy directed by Trump.
January 6 appears to be “an inside game and an outside game,” with the former focused on pressuring then-Vice President Mike “Pence steal the election procedurally” and the latter on using the violent mob “to terrorize potentially recalcitrant GOP reps into going along with the theft.” New reporting shows the extent to which Meadows was orchestrating the pressure campaign against Pence. Bannon was also in the thick of it and is on tape telling his podcast listeners on Jan. 5 to “strap in” because “we’re pulling the trigger on something” and “we’re on the point of attack tomorrow.”
“What really matters now is how the Republican Party responds to efforts to expose the role that Trump’s aides and allies played in the coup and the Capitol riot. And that reaction tells us all we need to know about who the GOP is now, and how far they’ve gone down the fascism rabbit hole.”
The threat that Republicans will have a bunch of B.S. hearings to float right-wing conspiracy theories when they retake the House is meaningless, as they were going to do that no matter what. But it is relevant that they are defending Bannon, a human pile of chewed-up gum who barely even pretends not to see himself as the 21st century Joseph Goebbels. Republicans are no longer interested in upholding the pretense of support for peace and democracy. Embracing Bannon is embracing the ideology of violent fascism that led to the Capitol riot in the first place.
Outside of D.C., we see further evidence in this in the reaction to the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three people, killing two, after picking up an illegally obtained AR-15 and going, totally uninvited and under the guise of “security,” to harass demonstrators at a Black Lives Matter protest.
We are seeing “a move among the GOP towards the view that violence and chaos is an acceptable response to political disagreement.”
Indeed, the celebration of Rittenhouse’s violence has been accompanied by Republicans in statehouses passing laws to make it easier to get away with killing left-wing protesters. As Jess Bidgood of the Boston Globe reported last month, “there have been scores of people hit, dozens of injuries, at least three deaths” due to right-wingers mowing down protesters with their cars. But rather than prosecute such people, “Oklahoma and 15 other states have considered bills protecting drivers,” and in many cases, they’ve passed them.
Conservatives continue to believe, despite the recent Virginia gubernatorial win, that they and their ideas cannot compete in free and fair elections. And so violence to crush the left is becoming an ever more acceptable answer in GOP circles.
Late last week, ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl released audio of an interview in which Trump argues that it was “common sense” for his supporters who stormed the Capitol to be chanting “hang Mike Pence.” . . .
It’s clear that Trump continues to believe, as he did on January 6, that Pence both had the right and the obligation to simply declare the 2020 election null and void, even though there’s simply no legal or factual basis for the claim. And he sees violence in the name of trying to force this vision as justified and, in his words, “common sense.”
In their 2021 year out memo released Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wrote, “The moment Washington Republicans felt their grip on power loosen, they unleashed a full assault on American democracy, culminating in a murderous assault on the Capitol and the introduction of anti-voter legislation across the country.” [the move away from democracy was already underway, it just reached a new peak in violence!]
Passing laws to protect murderers who drive their vehicles into innocent pedestrians is a sign of mental illness – the Nazis did not even go that far!
Since when is it that “the law is not about justice, but enshrining the power of a right-wing minority over everyone else. Theirs is an absolutist view of power and a rejection of democracy. Perhaps calling it by its name doesn’t help move the needle of public opinion or get voters to wake up any faster. But Trumpism is just fascism, and Trumpism is what the GOP is about these days.”
see more at
https://www.rawstory.com/republicans-now-openly-embrace-violent-fascism
Florida’s H.B. 1 is but one of scores of Republican-sponsored anti-protest bills introduced in dozens of states over the past year. As of late June, eight states have passed such laws.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/14/rights-groups-fight-back-against-punitive-and-unjust-anti-protest-law-florida
Demonstrators around the country have been injured and killed by vehicle rammings, but there’s been precious little justice. And new laws could make accountability even scarcer.
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2021/10/vehicle-rammings-against-protesters/tulsa/
Oklahoma passes a law that can protect drivers who run over protesters
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/22/us/oklahoma-law-drivers-protesters/index.html
In response to epic protests around the country, state legislators in nearly 20 states proposed bills in 2017 that would restrict people’s right to protest. The ACLU fought back and many of the bills died or were amended to remove unconstitutional language.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/rights-protesters/anti-protest-bills-around-country