For a long time, GOP elites imagined “they cld exploit racism & conspiracy theorizing while remaining focused on a plutocratic agenda. But w/ the rise...of the Tea Party, then of...Trump, the cynics found that the crazies were actually in control...” 1/ nytimes.com/2021/01/11/opi…
2/ “You might have hoped that a significant # of sane Republican politicians would finally say that enough is enough, & break w/ their extremist allies. But Trump’s party didn’t balk at his corruption & abuse of power; it stood by him when he refused to accept electoral defeat..”
3/ “... and some of its members are responding to a violent attack on Congress by complaining about their loss of Twitter followers.”
“And there’s no reason to believe that the atrocities yet to come — for there will be more atrocities — will make a difference. The G.O.P. has reached the culmination of its long journey away from democracy, and it’s hard to see how it can ever be redeemed.” 4/
.@charliekirk11’s “Turning Point Action was listed as a participant in [the] ... rally, which preceded the attack on Capitol Hill. Prior to the rally, in a tweet he later deleted, Kirk said the group wld be involved w/ sending over 80 buses...” 1/ cnbc.com/2021/01/13/dar…
2/ “CNBC captured a screenshot of tweet before it was deleted.
Kirk recently said on his podcast that those from Turning Point got back on their buses & left following the conclusion of the rally.”
IMO, the #SAFEAct is better on election security than HR1 bc it wld ban most touchscreen voting machines currently available. HR1 wld allow them as a primary in person system bc vendors call the paper they spit out a “paper ballot.” Pen & paper is safer #HandMarkedPaperBallots 1/
I have not looked at other aspects of HR1. It addresses more than election security. The #SAFEAct shld be the starting point for election security reform in my opinion. 2/
HR1 requires that all voters have the option to mark their ballots by hand. But it does not specify that, for jurisdictions with in person voting, the hand marked (pen & paper) option must be available for in person voting (vs it only being an option w/ vote by mail). 3/
It is fitting that Louie Gohmert voted AGAINST making lynching a federal crime and then proceeded to help incite an attempted lynching of elected officials at the US Capitol. 1/
Rs killed the #SAFEAct, which wld have required robust manual audits of all federal races. Rs then used the lack of transparency that they created to make the baseless claim that Trump had won. They had no reliable evidence but falsely claimed they did, inciting a deadly riot.
@AlexandraChalup "As MAGA World’s hopes for an election redo have slipped away, an equally improbable idea has begun to percolate among Donald Trump’s most bitterly disappointed followers: secession." 12/21/20 h/t @AlexandraChalup 1/ politico.com/news/magazine/…
@AlexandraChalup 2/"Texas GOP chair Allen West floated the idea of a new union of 'law-abiding states,' and Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann—previously best known for dressing up as “gay Hitler”—pledged to file a bill in Austin to put the question of Texas secession to voters."
@AlexandraChalup "Rep. Randy Weber also posted pro-secession material on his Facebook page, becoming the first official in Washington to advocate for disintegrating the U.S. Trump’s most reliable media supporters have likewise spread the idea nationally." 3/