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Teri Kanefield Profile picture
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24 Jan, 10 tweets, 4 min read
The threat is that Trump will create a third party, the "MAGA Party," effectively splitting and dooming the GOP.

Others have talked about calling it the Patriot Party.

As in: Nice little Republican Party you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Quotation from the article⤵️

Convict me, and I'll destroy your party.

I'd like you to do us a favor, though.

The irony is that the Senate GOP failed to convict Trump when he tried to extort the president of Ukraine.

What's that they say about karma?

washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Third parties work very effectively in the U.S. as spoilers.

It's pretty clear that George W. won in 2000 because Ralph Nader siphoned off enough left-wing votes.

And would Clinton have won in 1992 without Ross Perot siphoning off conservative votes?
Another striking passage from this article is that this threat of this third party has GOP leaders "alarmed."

Their problem is this: Because they believe that loss at the polls will be catastrophic, they care only about winning the next election.

washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
If you care only about winning the next election, you can't also care about doing what is right.

This may lead them to actually acquit Trump for inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol-- a crime that was actually filmed.
It also means that the GOP will not be able to win elections for at least a few cycles while they regroup and reposition themselves as a center-right party.

There are minority communites in the US who tend to be traditionally conservative. . .

. . . but have been driven from the party by the GOP's embrace of white nationalists. You can't have a coalition of both minority communites and white nationalists.

The GOP has to be willing to lose a few elections while they regroup.

Will they?
Recall: When the Democrats embraced civil rights in the early 1960s, they knew they'd lose a few elections because they'd be losing one of their blocs of voters (white racists).

They embraced civil rights anyway because it was the right thing to do.
A particular bloc of voters were the core of the Democratic Party during the Confederacy and Jim Crow.

Now they're a majority of Republican voters.

They will not go away, nor will they suddenly fall in love with democracy and embrace diversity.

Absolutely correct.

If they acquit Trump because of his threats, he'll ne empowered and continue trying to bully them.

If they convict him because of his threats, he'll continue trying to bully them.

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More from @Teri_Kanefield

Teri Kanefield Profile picture
23 Jan


Spoiler: Yes, partly because the GOP isn't
conservative.

I think this is an interesting question. (Time to get philosophical 🤔)

The place to start, I think is how political psychologists define conservatism.

1/
2/ True conservatives, according to prof. @Jonhaidt, form a kind of yin-yang balance with liberals
ted.com/talks/jonathan…
Liberals embrace forward-looking change.

Conservatives value order.
From Haidt: the conservative insight is that order is hard to achieve and easy to lose.
3/ Reactionaries, on the other hand seek rapid change—backwards to a bygone era.

Other political psychologists (see @karen_stenner) describe conservatives as embracing a desire to maintain the status quo.
Read 12 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
20 Jan
I felt confident we'd reach this day.

I also know that the story of right-wing insurgency doesn't end here.

🎶They'll be back, like before🎶
They will fight more fights to win the war.
I always qualified with an "if"

I said "We will get through this if enough people are willing to do the work."

My confidence came from seeing how many people were willing to do the work.
New followers don't know that I adopted you all.

It happened a few years ago when a follower asked me to adopt him. I didn't want to play favorites, so I adopted all my followers.

So you are all Twitter siblings and I expect you all to get along.

Read 5 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
19 Jan
This doesn't look good for Trump's chances in the Senate Impeachment Trial.

It's hard to imagine acquitting after making a statement like his one.
He also said this: "We certified the people’s clear choice for their 46th president."

Everyone should read the full statement. It's quite interesting.

It's almost like McConnell doesn't need Trump anymore and isn't afraid of him.
I'm sure McConnell and others want to get rid of Trump as a force in politics.

Trump, on the other hand, has vowed his revenge.

🍿
Read 5 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
18 Jan
Actually, they did, and they included a remedy: Impeachment and removal.

The problem we've had the past 4 years isn't just a corrupt president.

The problem is that so many people (including the entire GOP elected leadership) shielded him.
If the elected officials of one party abuse the constitution and get reelected, the problem is with the electorate.

For example, if a majority of Americans decided to reelect Trump--knowing everything we know about him--you can't blame the Constitution.
No laws can protect a democracy if a clear majority of the citizens decide they no longer want a democracy because they will keep electing officials who will destroy rule of law.
Read 6 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
18 Jan
The best answer I know:

🔹No, the pardons can't be overturned
🔹Corrupt pardons can be prosecuted as a separate crime
🔹Trump can't pardon himself, so if he pardons all the insurrectionists, he'll be left to take all the blame
🔹He'll hurt his chances of acquittal in the Senate
I doubt he will do it because it will hurt him.

On the other hand, not pardoning them creates a problem for him because the insurrectionists might start to realize they were duped, and he needs his base.
You'd think some of his supporters will realize that he set them up: He encouraged them to commit a crime (assuring them they're saving the country) and then left them to face prison.

The idea is to take down a criminal organization by getting the Kingpin.
Read 13 tweets
Teri Kanefield Profile picture
16 Jan
I see two possibilities ahead for the Republican Party.

#1: The party hardens as a right-wing white nationalist party and shrinks in size.

#2: Moderates conservatives retake the party. This, however, creates what political scientists call the "conservative dilemma."

1/
The conservative dilemma, in a nutshell is this: Conservatives tend to represent the wealth and powerful corporations, therefore the policies they advocate are not appealing to the majority of people.

In other words, they will have trouble winning elections.

2/
In the years since 1954, the Republican Party, while calling itself conservative, solved the conservative dilemma by bringing white nationalists and KKK types into the party, coddling them for their votes while trying to keep them on the sidelines.

3/
Read 21 tweets

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