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Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
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13 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
The Big Lie of the 2020 Election wasn’t just about Trump. It was about the GOP setting the foundations for never accepting electoral defeat and using legislative powers to overturn results if possible.
Trump and allies claiming the election was stolen was about shredding liberal democracy and any remaining belief that the functions of elections and representative government can operate in a polarized environment.

It wasn’t isolated. We’ll feel the consequences for years.
Things didn’t just get better on January 20th. No more than they just reached this point of crisis. We’re still in the middle of a massive, dangerous crisis that will escalate as the GOP continues to erode faith in liberal democracy in order to destroy it

jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-intentio…
The Right is a lot easier to understand when you realize Trump showed them they could do anything and deconstruct liberal democracy without losing support or suffering consequences. They watched him thrash and realized they were free.

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More from @JYSexton

Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
15 Sep
America created a presidency that could literally destroy the world.

Donald Trump made it clear this power could fall into dangerously incompetent hands. We shouldn't have to rely on soft military coups and insubordination to avoid nuclear disaster.

1/
jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/a-sick-and-b…
The story of how we arrived here is horrifying. In pursuit of empire, America has made itself a lumbering juggernaut that can destroy the world many times over, all while perpetuating a myth of meritocracy and benevolence that hides an awful truth.

2/
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/a…
We had to learn yesterday, from a new book, that Gen Milley and other military leaders agreed to disobey any orders Trump might make regarding a nuclear strike.

This is both unconstitutional and telling. We live in a terribly dangerous system that could fail.

3/ Image
Read 25 tweets
Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
14 Sep
Today is the release of the AMERICAN RULE paperback edition, so I wanted to take a minute and discuss why the GOP and the Right are fighting so hard to silence actual history.

They want to hide the truth about white supremacy and exploitation.

1/
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/a…
The Right depends on a mythological telling of our Founding.

They want to treat the Framers as champions of freedom, liberty, and equality, and hide the fact that they created a country explicitly for white, wealthy men.

2/
The myth of American Exceptionalism, this idea that we are a *chosen nation* by God and that we are a bastion for liberty and freedom is why so much of our political crisis is confusing and, for some, inscrutable.

But real history shows us how we've arrived at this moment.

3/
Read 28 tweets
Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
13 Sep
It’s not at all strange that Trump addressed a cult for money. It’s what he’s been doing with the Right for years now.
Cults aren’t just about control, they’re about profiting off people who want direction and an explanation for confusing and frightening times.

The Right has been a dance between people who are terrified and confused and malevolent actors more than willing to use them.
The Right is an amalgamation of a terrified base and the wealthy and powerful who have exploited them and use conspiracy theories to redirect blame and anger to vulnerable populations.

Trump is the embodiment of this process. Just as pure and uncut of an example as there is.
Read 4 tweets
Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
10 Sep
While everybody keeps talking about how stupid and ignorant everyone is there are billionaires who have spent their fortunes and lion’s share of their time feverishly pushing misinformation and funding projects to undermine experts and are beyond thrilled you’re not blaming them.
You don’t just end up here, in a society drowning in conspiracy theories and populations mistrusting nonpartisan experts. This is a result of decades’ worth of work and billions of dollars spent undermining science and education and poisoning the well.
If you want this fixed, if you want this to get better, you have to reinvigorate education while removing the incentive to profit off destructive, misleading information. The problem is that our system is primed to reward self-destruction.
Read 5 tweets
Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
8 Sep
On the twentieth anniversary of September 11th, it's time we recognize the consequences of America's need for vengeance, the effect of militarism in fostering fascism, and how the illusion of American exceptionalism led to murderous self-destruction.

1/
jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-end-of-t…
Unfortunately so much of the remembrance of 9/11 is spent on the spectacle while ignoring the tragedy of all the lives lost of those who found themselves between two warring factions and the crush of history.

We also must reckon with the consequences of American empire.

2/
There is no real understanding of our current crises without investigating how 9/11 was a cataclysmic event that shook America from a fantasy of world domination and exceptionalism, leading to disastrous wars and a philosophy of hatred and fear that permeated the U.S.

3/
Read 25 tweets
Jared Yates Sexton Profile picture
3 Sep
All right.

We need to talk about how the GOP's embrace of authoritarianism and violence is largely a consequence of the wealthy and powerful destroying our political system and selling fascism as a consumer identity to a radicalized population.

1/
jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/politics-as-…
This report of an incident in AZ with a parent threatening to kidnap a school official is a terrible consequence of GOP fearmongering, but what's telling in this is how the whole incident was filmed and streamed on social media.

2/
washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09…
This isn't unique. A large part of the GOP's descent into authoritarianism has been a constant merging of violent rhetoric and acts with streams of the behavior as the base is both chronicling their actions and attempting to gain from those acts.

3/
Read 24 tweets

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