Thread by @dcpetterson

The dark truth y'all need to know:

Republicans aren't going to stop trying to overthrow America.

After the above sentence, there's no "... unless ..."
They simply aren't going to stop.

Locking up everyone involved--for life--won't stop them. It won't even slow them down.

1/12

Y'all who want "justice" and "accountability" and who WANT IT NOW--you need to know:

That won't stop them.

It won't be deterrent. It won't prevent the next assault.

It will instead enrage them and create a class of martyrs who will further invigorate their cause.

2/12

I'm not saying "Don't do it!" I'm NOT saying that.

We absolutely =must= prosecute all the insurrectionists to the fullest extent of the law.

I'm instead saying, all the rhetoric about them being emboldened by how long it's taking to hold them accountable--is bullshit.

3/12

You want to see "emboldened"? Wait until the first high-level operative (Bannon? Stone? Kushner?) is found guilty of sedition and led off in manacles to a federal prison. The rightist militias might well be moved to violent armed riots.

4/12

Trump losing the election emboldened them. It elevated their Cause. They're driven by the fear and knowledge that they're losing. It makes them ever-more desperate. What you call "swift, sure justice" will force the horde of rabid rats into a corner.

They won't be cowed.

5/12

They'll be enraged.

Let me stress: WE MUST DO IT ANYWAY. But don't imagine it will fix anything.

They're driven by fear. The privilege of white male cis het Christofascism is on the decline. They increasingly must share power and wealth with everyone they hate.

6/12

Their world is slipping away. They know it, and that terrifies them.

Locking up the mascots ("leaders" is the wrong word) of this cabal will further prove their point--that the cult of oppression they worship under is crumbling and cannot last.

7/12

Trumpist Fascism won't end when Trump is in prison. It won't even slow.

To seek vengeance for the January 6 assault on America is natural--but it won't end the rise of radical rightist terrorism.

So how do we fight this onslaught against democracy?

There is only one way.

8/12

We must dedicate ourselves to the long, hard road of reinstilling democratic norms. We must change the culture to one of respect and decency. We must make the hate and anti-democratic impulses of the radical fascist right no longer acceptable.

We must rebuild America.

7/12

We must not weaken the institutions of democracy still more by taking shortcuts and craving immediate gratification. That does the fascists' work for them, by further dismantling the very structures they wish to destroy.

The short version is: Elect more Democrats.

8/12

The approach we must take is not flashy, not dramatic, not easy, not quick. It is the battle, not merely of a season, or of a year, or even of a lifetime. It is the wide sweep of history, the centuries-long struggle to form a more perfect union.

9/12

JFK, Jan 20, 1961:

"And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved. ...

10/12

"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.

But let us begin."

11/12

Republicans will not cease their attempts to end America. We must be a bulwark against that. By our dedication to democracy, we must drive the impulse to fascism back under the leach field where it hides when society rejects fear and hate.

12/12