Thread by @mattsheffield

For the past 6 years, I & a few other journalists have been trying to get the mainstream press and political elites realize the major danger posed by the radical right. Unfortunately, moderate and liberal elites deluded themselves into thinking that conservatism wasn't a cult.

There is no secretly powerful "Republican establishment" that will fix things. There are thugs, deluded people, and there are quislings. There is no one else in the GOP. Instead of focusing on the radical right's danger, editors wanted stories about Trump tweets.

Instead of calling out the dangerous radicalism of the GOP, television debate shows and opinion pages invited the enablers of fascism to speak and write about how we all needed to give powerful insane people the benefit of the doubt.

Unlike Trump, who walled off the White House months ago into a fortress, Nancy Pelosi did not take the terrorist threat seriously enough to demand better security. She has the budget and the authority and did nothing similar. Now, fascists are on the floor of Congress.

Of course, it is Trump who bears the responsibility for this but the Capitol Police have totally disgraced themselves by not fortifying the building the way that the Secret Service did to the WH.

This is the view of numerous congressional staffers of both parties.

If this report is true, the Trump Defense Department has a huge amount to answer for and it may be why Esper resigned.

https://twitter.com/byaaroncdavis/status/1346908166030766080?s=20

We must not forget though that the dozens of Trump fascist rallies have featured numerous speakers on stage and on video claiming that they would engage in violent terrorism to serve their God-ordained president.

This was planned and announced in public!

Biden and his people should also have been more involved in asking for protection of his victory. Once Trump began calling on fanatics to gather, the police should have quintupled in size or more.

Here's an excellent thread from @RightWingWatch documenting the many calls for violent protests and storming the Capitol

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1346913372432867329?s=20

Undoubtedly, if thousands of #BlackLivesMatter supporters had threatened violence in the Capitol for weeks, Congress and the military would have had dozens of tanks and barricades in place.

Of course, beyond Trump who initiated the coup, the person who deserves the most blame is @rupertmurdoch for running a toxic cable news channel for decades that poisoned the minds of conservatives to manipulate them into backing anti-government radicalism.

Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch must be made into pariahs for the rest of their entire lives. They deliberately brainwashed hundreds of millions of people purely for the money.

No celebrity should do business with any Murdoch property ever again. No Murdochs, no Trump.