I actually agree that he was a competent fascist. My fear is that having fired up the extremists, he’ll make way for a Reagan-esque figure, who will do all the same stuff but sound Nice And Polite enough to win over moderates, who’ll denounce the Proud Boys without doing anything
And no, that sort of figure might not have the same pull over Trumpists that Trump did, but they’ve already come into being. They don’t need someone to empower or encourage them from the White House any more: they just need someone who won’t try to stop them.
And again: the old guard Republican Party leadership’s issue with Trump wasn’t that he was too fascist for them—they want all the same things. It was his lack of loyalty to them and his saying the quiet parts out loud.
When I sad Qanon was evangelical Christianity made palatable to atheists, I meant it, and the narrative is already rolling: Trump has been martyred by an evil conspiracy, and his followers just need someone to play Peter to Trump’s Jesus.
Romney would fit fine in that role for them. It doesn’t even matter if that politician denounced Trump: just as Qanon read every Trump failure as an actual success, with Trump playing 5-dimensional chess, they’ll believe that denunciations are part of a larger strategy.
Anyway, I think it’s going to be Romney—he’s been quiet during the worst of the muck before the election, is now trumpeting that we must accept the election results and move forward, &is claiming that the election of Biden is actually an endorsement of “true” conservative values.
Which is pretty smart. People get conservative in times of uncertainty, but Trump’s ugliness turned a lot of people off. Biden’s not going to be able to fix the economy in 4 years, and working out vaccine distribution is going to be a nightmare.
So framing Biden’s election as validating “true” conservative values rather than as trying to paint him as far left (which GOP strategists know very well he’s not) is actually very smart. They can reject the ugliness and chaos of the Trump years, support some of the stuff Biden..
...does instead of opposing literally everything because it comes from a Democrat, and then when he fails to magically save the economy and everyone doesn’t get a vaccine on Day 1 of his presidency, they can claim that they’ll keep doing anything he did that people liked, ...
...because that stuff was actually True Conservatism, but he failed at it because he was a Democrat. And in comes Strong But Kind Dad to do what Nice But Weak Uncle couldn’t.
Democrats are drawing all of their energy from fury and disgust at Trump, and they need to stay energized for the next four years to actually even put out the fires, let alone build anything.
A non-hate-inspiring, “compassionate” new face for the GOP will bleed off all that energy. And worse, has a chance of making politicians like AOC, who are energy centers, look less like the voice of reason and more like angry young upstarts.
Anyway, I am terrified of Romney.
(And yes, I'm aware that the loudest segment of the Republican base wants another Trump, but I think the Republicans are going to put forward someone that the Trumpists will vote for who moderate Democrats will find palatable.)
Republicans putting forward another Trump will keep opposition energized, and likely lose them the election. The enthusiasm that elected Biden wasn't *for him,* it was *against Trump.*
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my parents have been pretty responsible about COVID for Boomers living in what was a red state before this election, but my sister tracks their phones just to be safe because a lot of their friends aren't taking it seriously and I really have to admire her commitment
and I know if I were either her or my parents I'd be exhausted (her from trying to make sure they stay safe, because they have a hard time saying no to their friends) and them from basically being spied on
but from half a continent away it's hilarious
like, understand, my sister is in a different city from them
so, SCENE: my mom sitting in the car at the Starbucks drivethru
So I finally started listening to @yourewrongabout's series on the DC snipers and the first episode is a *masterpiece* of structure. (Thread)
I hadn't gotten around to listening to the DC snipers episodes because it was a series, and I didn't really remember anything about the DC snipers beyond that they'd shot a bunch of people in DC.
The episode starts off by asking why, when the DC snipers:
A) killed a lot of people
B) left behind Tarot cards and engaged in the sort of cryptic, active back-and-forth with police that serial killer stories LOVE
C) were really damn good at being unpredictable...
Yup. Time to review why you can't let fascists have even an inch, why we have to make it ACTUALLY socially unacceptable to be a Nazi. theestablishment.co/why-punching-n…
Beware "those who see Nazis as perfect foils for their ideological posturing rather than very real genocidal extremists with a long and bloody track record," because they're going to wring their hands at the idea of shunning these people.
Fascism's not one political ideology among many. It is "specifically engineered to attack the weaknesses of democracy and use them to bring down the entire system, arrogating a right to free speech for itself just long enough to take power and wrench it away from everyone else."
like, weird, *I* thought it was the constant treatment of fascism as a legitimate point of view and giving fascists time on the news and doing fawning profiles of them and otherwise normalizing their participation in society that gave us Trumpism
like this both-sides-ism is coming from someone who claims to be a civil rights attorney