Thread by @guardianogeloso

Are you on the fence in this election? Do you have friends and family who are still undecided?

Let me offer a persuasive argument.

I’m rejecting Republicans up and down the ticket. Why?

It’s the lies and the fear-mongering for me.

🧵1/

The lies and fear mongering on abortion. Crime. Guns. Jan 6. Elections. Gas prices. Inflation. Tax Policy. Immigration. Public health. Public education.

When I take a step back, I see that the entire Republican platform is built on propaganda and lies. /2

On abortion, the lie is as pervasive as ever. Republicans claim Democrats want to allow healthy babies to be aborted on their due date. Or even AFTER birth.

It’s clear emotional manipulation with zero basis in fact. /3

The vast majority of abortions take place prior to 25 weeks. The infinitesimal number beyond that aren’t elective abortions of healthy pregnancies. They are extremely rare cases where the baby can’t live and the mother is truly at risk. /4

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

I’ve experienced late term pregnancy loss and I understand this better than most. Not only does “due-date abortion” not exist, but Roe vs Wade already provided the perfect legal standard to ensure states could explicitly ban it. My story at the link: /5

sheknows.com/health-and-wel…

The truth is that most Americans agree on these extreme cases— and Roe vs Wade already provided a reasonable framework for how to treat them under the law.

The horrific scenarios floated by Republicans are outright lies with no basis in fact, designed only to create fear. /6

The fact that all three of Trump’s SCOTUS picks lied under oath about their intentions to overturn Roe just adds insult to injury.

They knew their radical position would be unacceptable to most, so they pulled the wool over our eyes and straight up lied about their plans. /7

Moving on to crime and guns, the lies are so intertwined it’s hard to separate them.

They blame crime on liberal mayors, often ignoring decades of Republican leadership at the state level and their policies that contribute to gun crime. Take Missouri, for example. /8

Our Second Amendment Preservation Act bans police from adhering to federal gun laws or using federal resources to stop/prevent gun crime and puts $50K bounties on the heads of cops who do.

It makes it easier for bad guys to get guns and harder for cops to stop them. /9

In other states, cities deal with the loose policies of neighboring states (like Missouri) that allow guns to easily move across state borders.

In any case the data is clear: states with weaker guns laws have more gun crime. #gunsense /10

everytownresearch.org/rankings/

The attempt to blame crime on liberals while pushing laws that weaken security is two-fold emotional manipulation.

The lies about crime + the fear-mongering that “liberals are coming for your guns” sends people headfirst into backwards right-wing policy that doesn’t work. /11

On Jan 6 and elections, the lies are too big to measure and too many to count.

It began with the propaganda campaign about voter fraud started by the GOP in 2015. There was never any basis in fact, but these insinuations primed folks and created the skepticism for 2020. /12

From the lies about voter fraud, to the lies about the vote count, to the lies about voting machines— the entire plot of Jan 6 depended fully upon this longterm campaign of lies and fear mongering.

But here’s the thing. /13

In 2020, they had every opportunity to prove these claims.

But the Republican Party came up empty in court 62/62 times. Not a single judge was convinced and instead they explicitly stated that the cases were based on nothing more than fraud and speculation. /14

Sidney Powell’s defamatory statements about Dominion Voting have not only jeopardized her law license but have landed her square at the center of a multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit— that she is going to lose. /15

Overall, the hypocrisy is just too much. Every voter in America knows that if Hillary had led an invasion of the Capitol to stop Trump from being certified as the winner in 2016, Republicans would have called for her public execution.

I wish I was kidding. You know I’m not. /16

On gas prices and inflation, the lies are the most obvious.

Republicans blame Joe Biden and say it’s his intentional policy to hurt Americans.

But inflation and high gas prices are happening in every country in the world. It’s not unique to America. That lie is DOA. /17

The COVID lies are just dumb. Everything from Dr. Fauci created the virus, to lies about the safety of the vaccine, to lies about the efficacy of other drugs— all part of the same campaign to muddy the waters and create skepticism and mistrust that Republicans can exploit. /18

Just smoke and mirrors and a whole lot of willing pundits. This is true across the board.

And on many topics, the Republican Party has transformed itself into a Trojan horse of policy— using fear to win votes, then creating policy that flies in the face of stated positions. /19

Nowhere is this more obvious than Republicans heralding free speech rights while pushing to ban books based on lies that librarians are sexualizing kids.

They call themselves guardians of free speech and then enact policy to restrict speech in shocking ways. /20

Never mind the fact that time and time again, it’s *Republican* officials getting busted for child pornography, abuse, molestation, etc.

Nevermind that altogether. /21

I’ll sum up my rejection of Republicans with this Isaac Asimov quote:

“I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.” /22

The Republican platform is comprised of nothing more than wild and ridiculous claims with little to no evidence to support them.

And they aren’t looking to provide evidence. Their plan is to crank up the fear mongering— bc if they scare you enough, evidence is irrelevant. /23

Their platform is fully hollow. They offer the American people nothing more than a false critique of liberals. If liberals support it, they’re against it— no matter the merits or how it aligns with their stated values. /24

But anti-liberal offers nothing of substance, only contrarianism. Without ideas of their own and a plan to address what ails us, Republicans are nothing more than charlatan snake-oil salesmen looking to make a quota. /E 🧵