Thread by @TheRickWilson

1/ A year ago this morning the plan was in place. The conspiracy was in action. The players knew their lines and marks.

They had worked for weeks to contrive a ludicrous legal argument based on specious reasoning to retain Trump's hold on office.

2/ It ran deep, far across the entire right-wing ecosystem. Near the center was a putrid slurry of Trump, his crime family, his goon squad sycophants, cosplay lawyers, leathery degenerate Roger Stone...

3/ ...pernicious little ratfuckers like Ali Alexander, conspiracy loons like Alex Jones, and of course the throbbing, cancerous gristle of Steve Bannon.

4/ One ring out was the Fox apparatus and all sniping gulls that follow the sewage barge of its daily content. For weeks, the most powerful normative force in GOP politics blasted out the Big Lie, as they do to this very moment. Its handmaiden Facebook fed algorithmically...

5/ ...crafted poison to millions of Americans as the kinetic parts of the plot to overthrow the election spoke openly as to their intentions.

But the most important parts of the plot to break American the Republic were elected Republicans bred to a new era.

6/ In the House and the Senate, a cadre of Republicans was eager for that day. Ready for it. Praying for the short, sharp shock of their nationalist revolutionary fantasies to come to be.

Democracy for them is a hindrance to power. An obstacle.

7/ Their evolution from oh-God-not-Trump in 2016 to "All hail the Great Leader's shock troops" in 2021 was complete. Not every Republican felt that way, but the ones who didn't were worse.

They lived in fear, and after a brief vote went back to living in fear.

8/ The "good Republicans" still spent the majority of the Trump era -- and that fateful day -- saying one thing and voting with him. Backing him.

Why were (and are) they so scared of his mob and his enforcers?

Because the purpose of terror is to terrorize.

9/ Bannon and his ilk would have danced a merry jig if the mob had murdered a Representative or Senator. They would've loved it.

Pour encourager les autres, bro.

If not for luck, providence, and the courage of the MCPD and Capitol Police, they would have.

10/ This was an act of terror, as even Fat Wolverine now admits. It was one more in a chain of crimes and sins by Trump and his movement to break this nation into an authoritarian kleptocracy based on fear and violence.

And the GOP still won't have a moment of clarity on it.

11/ Oh, in private they still acknowledge it, but the fear of the mob is with them still. The frisson of a bullet passing close by but missing. The narrowly averted car crash. It sticks. They're trapped in a political and media ecosystem built for mob rule.

12/ I'll spare you a discourse on how fundamentally anti-conservative the Trump movement is, but the GOP is ruled now by criminals, cowards, and opportunists.

The fact only two Members stood up to serve on the 1/6 committee is all you need to know.

13/ One of the great gifts of the GOP is a relentless commitment to staying on message, no matter how absurd it looks in either the moment or in retrospect. (QED my old twitter feed lol).

What will their message be about 1/6?

14/ "Democrats are exaggerating because they're Marxist communist Antifa revolutionaries who want mandatory socialism and sharia gay marriage to your dog."

"It was a protest that got a little out of hand."

"But BLM was worse."

"But Russiagate was worse."

15/ "Hunter's Laptop was worse."

"Trump didn't do anything wrong."

You know the drill. You've seen the movie.

Now, many do-gooders still believe we can live in a harmonious, bipartisan land of soft cuddles and cute puppies.

16/ With respect...you're out of your fucking minds. The conspiracy goes on. The plot to reinstall Trump is alive and kicking. Bannon walks free. Stone walks free. The DOJ said the right words, but the top of the chain of an attempt to overthrow the election is still in play.

17/ The elected plotters and supporters of 1/6, the Insurrection Caucus are doing great -- they're still receiving millions in corporate donations from companies that promised they'd never give to them again.

18/ The DC Republican media ecosystem -- defined more by their hatred of people who oppose Trump and his authoritarian statism than by any remnant of conservatism -- shrugged off their qualms and have largely forgiven 1/6.

19/ And God love the Democrats, but when they straight-facedly say shit like "This election is about BBB and prescription drugs" they deserve to lose to these fuckers.

The Trump side treats this as a cold civil war, and they're planning and ready for a more kinetic iteration.

20/ Just as 2020 was at every level a referendum on Trump, 2022 is a referendum on democracy. It's a stark, hard choice. The work we put in in 2022 will determine just how much the fuckery of 2024 can be contained.

It's a choose-you-own-adventure for the Republic.

21/ I'll wrap this up.

When authoritarians take over, everyone is shocked.

"Wait...those clowns?"

But the other side isn't working in secret. They're telling you exactly what they'll do.

They've promised -- and executed -- political violence.

22/ Once you cross that Rubicon, all bets are off.

No, it's not an excuse to imitate them, but unless and until the majority of Americans who don't believe in the very dark future Bannon, Trump, and Fox are painting get brutally tough in their response to it...

23/ ...then the bad guys have a powerful advantage. The rule of law and tradition is nice until they're marching you up the steps of the gibbet.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

End.