Thread by @SeanCasten

I've said it before, but so much of what has led to the crisis of patriotism, decency, safety and security in today's @GOP is explained by this chart. H/T @LeadershipNP

1/ The left side of that chart represents a huge diversity of interests. You can't get elected to high office as a D unless you have a view of the country that encompasses all.

2/ And the right side: you can't get elected as an R unless you pledge fealty to gun-nuts. One side selects for intelligence and empathy. One side selects for obedience.

3/ The nonsense on the House floor tonight, less than a day after a massive terrorist attack on the Capitol is the result. One party, trying to do the job we were hired to do, the other using Capitol Police as props to show their fealty to the NRA.

4/ But there's also a bigger issue. When you select for obedience, you don't get leaders. You get soldiers. Of the "theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do and die" variety.

5/ They will yell about mob violence one day, then encourage insurrectionists the next. They will pledge their respect to police one day, then strip funding for local governments to pay for those police the next.

6/ And on this day, 1/12/21, they got to work, all dutifully posted signs on their office doors supporting our Capitol Police, then scared them all by barging through alarming metal detectors.

7/ Do not look to them for intellectual consistency. They were not selected for their values. They are here because they are obedient. Tell them to storm a hill, and they will storm it. Their masters care not for their political fate. Only for their willingness to charge.

8/ They are hostile to campaign finance reform because a democratic, meritocratic world would render them unemployed. Which is why 65% of them voted with the terrorists to oppose democracy.

https://twitter.com/SeanCasten/status/1348092292394078211?s=20

9/ And if I seem a little angry, a little short, a little intolerant this week, I hope you'll forgive me for thinking that 6 days after the first attack on the US Capitol since 1812 I could count on 100% of the people who work there to take security seriously. /fin

Sorry - *week