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8 Jan, 7 tweets, 3 min read
I lay awake haunted on Nov. 8-9, 2016, by searing visions of torch-wielding Brownshirts marauding violently in the streets & storming halls of gov't; of immigrant families rounded up & locked in concentration camps; & of mass death due to a careless leader.

It all happened.
I wasn't clairvoyant. I, like many LGBT people (& women & POC...) had simply listened to what Trump's supporters demanded & what he promised.

Everything from Charlottesville, to child concentration camps, to the Sedition on the Sixth was predictable. It was his platform.
As a gay man, I had to fear that Trump could appoint Supreme Court justices who'd overturn my rights.

Kennedy's retirement made me sick.

For 3 ½ years, my heart raced and I lost my breath every time I saw "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" in a push notification. And then she died.
You know what many of these now-"worried" Trump supporters that Fox News lionizes said when I expressed my genuine fears?

"Fuck your feelings, snowflake."

"Suck it up, Trump's your president."

"MAGA, b***!"
My fears in 2016 were rooted in the real things Trump said & the vengeance policies he promised to aggrieved white Americans who wanted the "other" to suffer.

What do Trump voters have to fear?

Did Biden propose a travel ban on Trump voters or to put their kids in prison camps?
If 75 million Trump voters are fearful now, it's probably based, not on Biden's actual policies (none of which target white working or middle class Trump voters for abuse), but on the fantasy "SOCIALIST!" monster Fox News sells it's viewers to keep them fearful & tuned in.
Demagogues convinced voters to doubt the legitimacy of the election based on vague assertions, then said, "People have doubts! Must be something to it!"

Fox News tells viewers what to fear—and then cites the fears they created as proof that the fears are justified.

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More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
9 Jan
A Nevada GOP Chairman sent this BONKERS letter to Republican voters:

"Let me be clear: Trump will be president for another four years. Biden will not be president. Yes, I know those are shocking words in these crazy days."

Next, he accuses Pence & the Cabinet of treason.👇🏻1/ ImageImage
Next, like a cherry-picking preacher twisting God's words, the GOP chairman says this:

"Go back and listen to the videos all the way through. At no point does Trump even mention Biden’s name. At no point does he say he concedes. ..." 2/ 👇🏻 Image
Nye GOP Chair: "(Trump) does say that there will be a peaceful transition to a new admin & he does say this is only the beginning."

"Indeed, we will have a new admin made up of a new VICE PRESIDENT and CABINET as the current ones have all made their TREASON complete." 3/ 👇🏻 Image
Read 23 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
8 Jan
NEW: The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman, Bennie Thompson, is calling on Congress to impeach and "immediately" remove President Donald Trump from office, saying he is "a direct threat to the homeland each remaining minute he is in power."
mississippifreepress.org/8026/trump-is-…
“What occurred yesterday at our nation’s Capitol was—pure and simple—domestic terrorism incited by President Trump, his enablers, and those seeking to overturn the results of a legitimate election," said House Homeland Security Chair @BennieGThompson. mississippifreepress.org/8026/trump-is-…
“Never in my life did I ever expect to see a sitting president incite violent extremists at a rally and, after they stormed both the House and Senate chambers, raised the Confederate flag and erected a noose, tell them in a video that he loved them."
—HHS Chair @BennieGThompson
Read 13 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
7 Jan
NEW: U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is one of just six Senate Republicans who voted for Trump's attempted coup d'état.

“The people I represent do not believe the presidential election was constitutional ... I cannot in good conscience support certification.”
mississippifreepress.org/8008/sen-cindy…
Mark Baker, a 2019 GOP candidate for Mississippi AG, blamed Trump for today's insurrection.

“You can’t stack the wood, pour the gas, and light the match and then claim innocence. This was expected and intended. President Trump, you should be ashamed.” mississippifreepress.org/8008/sen-cindy…
Republican Mississippi State Rep. Missy McGee called it a "sad day in our nation."

"No man, no political party is greater than this country,” @MissyWMcGee said. mississippifreepress.org/8008/sen-cindy…
Read 15 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
7 Jan
THREAD: When thinking about what happened today, Trump, the violent insurrection he incited, and enablers like Senators Hawley and Cruz, it's instructive to listen to or read Edward R. Murrow's March 1954 news broadcast on Joseph McCarthy's demagogic, scorched earth politics. 1/
Murrow: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another." 2/
"We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular." 3/
Read 13 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
6 Jan
Republicans for years used extreme rhetoric for partisan gain, telling voters Democrats were all radical extremists who hate America.

This day is the fruit of that labor, so why feign surprise?

Just look at the mailers the GOP bombarded Georgia voters with about Warnock. Image
If you heard this message from Republicans & believed it was true, you might be inclined to support extreme, violent solutions.

"Your Family Won't Be Safe"

Political parties put out messages like this because they want people to believe them.

They created this. Purposefully. Image
Republicans told voters that Democrats were "cop-haters" & "Marxists" & "dangerous for America."

They didn't do this hoping people would say, "Yeah, but it's not THAT serious."

They wanted people to believe these messages.

Well, many did. Image
Read 5 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
5 Jan
NEW: Mississippi's senior U.S. senator, Roger Wicker, has come out AGAINST the plot by some in his party to overthrow American democracy and stop the elected incoming administration from taking power.

"I don’t think it’s a good idea," he said. mississippifreepress.org/7954/rep-palaz…
U.S. House Rep. Steven Palazzo says he backs the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

“I cannot idly stand by and watch Mississippi be disenfranchised" by swing states like Georgia having their electoral votes counted, Palazzo said. mississippifreepress.org/7954/rep-palaz… Image
U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation, criticized Palazzo:

“How can any Member of Congress challenge the legitimacy of Trump’s defeat when they were elected from the SAME ballot?” he wrote. mississippifreepress.org/7954/rep-palaz…
Read 5 tweets

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