Thread by @qpyoungnews

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They called Joe O'Dea a "moderate."

Here's the problem with that.

#copolitics #cosen

https://twitter.com/NewslineCO/status/1555199579338981378

Consider how far we've fallen:

➡️Trump does violent attempted coup
➡️Stop-the-steal still going
➡️Democratic norms trashed
➡️34 new laws in 19 states restrict voter access
➡️120 election-related criminal penalties in 26 states

➡️Election interference laws emerge, like in GA
➡️@BrennanCenter says election interference laws were GOP priority this year, with versions passed in 6 states
➡️Voter-fraud police unit championed by FL’s DeSantis, though voter fraud's rare
@GeorgiaRecorder
georgiarecorder.com/2021/03/26/kem…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder In North Carolina redistricting case SCOTUS could advance independent state legislature theory, a once fringe idea that has gained adherents among America First legislators. Legislatures could gerrymander and suppress votes essentially at will.
coloradonewsline.com/briefs/electio…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder The democratic foundation of the United States is crumbling. Will it collapse? That depends in part on people like Joe O’Dea.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder When the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate defeated the election-denying state Rep. Ron Hanks, you could hear a sigh of relief across the state, not least in the offices of establishment Republicans, and in no time he was welcomed as a “moderate” candidate.
axios.com/local/denver/2…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder He resists the far-right line on abortion bans and didn’t make a spectacle of himself by indulging the Q wing of his party.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder But, with the republic at risk, every leader no matter their political views is called upon at this moment to unequivocally convey confidence in the legitimacy of elections and the democratic ideals of which Americans previously could be so proud. O’Dea does the opposite.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder O’Dea is aligned with the Trumpist forces warping the nation under the weight of autocracy, and ultimately there can be nothing less moderate than that.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder His vision for the country’s future accommodates the most corrupt and anti-democratic office holder modern America has ever known, and in the most meaningful ways his presence in Congress would be little different than that of Hanks.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder During an interview prior to the primary, O’Dea said Trump deserved no blame for #J6, a critical failure to demand accountability for one of the worst crimes in the nation’s history. Even worse, though, he said he would vote for Trump for a second term.
coloradosun.com/2022/06/21/ron…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder In a Fox News radio interview after he won the primary, O’Dea again indicated, though less directly, that he would support a Trump run in 2024.
radio.foxnews.com/2022/07/05/can…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder Americans in the past six years have become desensitized to the right’s erosion of democratic norms, acts of institutional sabotage, default to bad faith, and the inflexible creed of party over people.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder But it’s worth pausing to consider what support for Trump implies. The twice-impeached former president tried to thwart the will of the people and topple constitutional authority. Condone that and you’ve signed your name to America’s death warrant.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder O’Dea on multiple occasions has singled out DeSantis for praise as a potential GOP presidential alternative to Trump. But that Yale-educated MAGA governor, often called “Trump with a brain,” poses an even greater threat to the nation.

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder Where Trump bumbles and behaves like a child, DeSantis calculates and acts with cunning. An early election denier, he's evolved into a devotee of the authoritarian Orbán, whose democracy-crushing populism MAGAs are anxious to emulate in the U.S.
vox.com/policy-and-pol…

@BrennanCenter @GeorgiaRecorder If that’s the direction in which he would help lead the country as a senator, it’s hard to see how his influence would fundamentally differ much from that of any political figure nominally positioned to his right. With moderates like O’Dea, who needs extremists?