I'd like to ask Kirk Cox what exactly people are being silenced from saying. What, specifically, do they want to say, but don't, for fear of being shamed for it?
And: what, specifically, does Kirk Cox intend to do to ensure nobody can shame them for saying those things?
I'm 46 years old, and I can't think of a time when bigots of all kinds felt more emboldened to speak their minds. I've never been more aware of how many people in my country proudly believe horrible, selfish, anti-human things.
What is this America over which Kirk Cox obsesses?
What is this "robust exchange of ideas" that Republicans would like to have?
What ARE the Republican "ideas" they would like to exchange with us so robustly?
I don't think dead people can run for and become president, but a lot of things I didn't think could happen have happened simply because if somebody approaches it with the attitude "try and stop it from happening" there exists no political will to stop it.
No way to remove a Republican president from office, anyway. It hasn't been tested but seems to me likely 17 Democratic Senators would have voted to remove a Democratic president who had tried to murder them.
But for a Republican president there exists no crime great enough.
Take it to the greatest extreme you could imagine.
"If Trump dropped a nuclear weapon and vaporized an American city, most Republican Senators would vote to exonerate—even Senators from the state in which that city had been incorporated."
That seems right. I'd buy that.
I mean this isn't a worse argument than those we got from Republicans after the insurrection.
Amazing to note that the 38.2%—perhaps the most over-represented people in the history of democracy—are furious, driven almost entirely by resentment that they are the oppressed ones: forgotten, neglected, and downtrodden.
Fascists only believe in the existence of themselves.
The more our country tries to free itself from white supremacy, the more the structures designed to preserve and entrench white supremacy, such as the Senate and the Electoral College, begin to present themselves.
It's worth noting this distinction—though the % of people supporting Trump nationwide is also approximately 40%, and Republicans very clearly represent only those people.
So, entrenched white supremacy isn't an exact system but it takes care of its own.
GIVEN REPUBLICAN COMPLICITY, THE JOB WASN'T TRYING AND CONVICTING THE PRESIDENT, THE JOB WAS TRYING AND CONVICTING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR THEIR COMPLITITY IN HIS CRIMES AND MAKING THEIR VOTE AS DAMNING AS POSSIBLE, GODAMNIT HOW DOES EVERYBODY NOT SEE THIS ARGGGGGGG
What absolutely unacceptable weak and pre-defeated fucking trash bullshit.
But what should they have *done*???
Not that. Try not surrendering from a position of strength. Try not making your fascist opposition party's job easier as they exonerate their fascist leader for attempting a coup.