Thread by @dcpetterson

When the new Congress is sworn in come January, Republicans will immediately begin a series of fake "investigations" into Democrats.

Yes, this is petty and juvenile and stupid, but it has a very dark strategic intent beyond merely smearing Democrats.

1/22

Republicans will, of course, =not= find evidence of any crimes or wrongdoing (though they will pretend they do). It's clear that's not what they're trying to accomplish, because if it was, they're going about it wrong.

2/22

Real investigations investigate crimes, not people. Something bad happens--a murder, a theft, an accident that could possibly be intentional sabotage--and investigators look at the evidence left behind to discover, in detail, what happened and who did it.

3/22

Political vengeance happens the other way. Fake investigators target people, and try to invent wrongdoings to pin on them. That is the stated goal of the upcoming Republican "investigations." They've announced a series of people (not alleged crimes) they will fauxvestigate.

4/22

So we know the intent isn't to uncover the perpetrators of criminal acts, because Republicans have already decided who the perpetrators are, before they've even decided on the criminal acts the guilty parties will have committed. (Verdict first. Indictment later.)

5/22

Partly, the intent of this mockery of justice is to create fake outrage directed toward political enemies. But there's a deeper, darker point.

Exactly everyone knows these fake inquiries will be, in fact, fake. Exactly everyone is entirely open about that.

6/22

There is no one with access to television or internet who doesn't know these fauxvestigations are nothing other than retaliatory theater.

Republicans will do this =because= Democrats had the audacity to investigate and prosecute actual Republican crimes.

7/22

The two impeachments, Mueller, the Jan 6 Committee, removing Maggie Three Names from committees because she threatened the lives of other Congresspeople--these were serious consequences, imposed because Republicans committed serious crimes.

8/22

Exactly everyone knows Republicans will now "investigate" Democrats (people, not crimes) in retaliation. Republicans are openly proclaiming that's why they're doing it.

The news media knows it. Voters know it. Politicians certainly all know it. Exactly everyone knows it.

9/22

You'd think this would somehow discredit Republican fake investigations, since everyone knows they're fake, and they can't hide the fake-ness.

But it won't. Everyone knowing this will be fake theater IS THE POINT. It's a feature, not a bug. It's why they're doing it.

10/22

Since Republicans will hold real power in the House, fake investigations can't be treated as fakes. Everyone--Democrats, the media, the public, the victims of Republican abuse--must take it seriously, because whoever controls the House can cause real damage to real people.

11/22

So America will be forced to suffer this abuse from Republicans, like a battered spouse unable to escape the beatings because all the doors are locked.

More: Republicans will invite counter-retaliation should Democrats regain power in '24 or '26.

12/22

What Republicans are about to do is a travesty, a mockery of the American system. It's really close to treason, and should Democrats retake the House, there will be calls to seek vengeance upon Republicans for having committed this profanity.

That's what they want.

13/22

Republicans will use the legitimate levers of power to commit a mockery of the very system they've taken control of. Everyone will know that's what they're doing.

They WANT Democrats to call for vengeance.

Because they will have pre-immunized themselves from those calls.

14/22

What Republicans are about to do is an act of juvenile retaliation.

They will paint any attempt to hold them responsible for doing it as merely more juvenile retaliation.

They will portray =all= Congressional investigations as political theater.

15/22

That, in the end, is their goal.

If Democrats don't counter-retaliate when they get the chance, the media will tell us Democrats are cowardly and timid. If Democrats =do= respond, they'll be immature crybabies.

And in any case, democracy is damaged.

16/22

Republican Retaliatory Theater will happen not simply to smear Democrats in all these various ways.

It is to smear the whole concept of just governance.

Republicans want Americans to see government as gangs of kids fighting over toys, NOT as a way to solve real problems.

17/22

The goal of fascism is to put a nation's rule into the hands of oligarchs and kleptocrats. To accomplish that, fascists have to convince the public that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people is both unworkable and undesirable.

18/22

If the House is seen as collapsing into a never-ending cycle of escalating feces-throwing between turf-claiming street gangs, then the Republican goal of discrediting governance and ending any possibility of real Congressional oversight will have been accomplished.

19/22

The only way for us to win that game is not to play it. Yes, the upcoming Republican kangaroo courts will have to be taken seriously, but it will be our role, as voters, to retaliate by electing sober representatives of democratic will at every opportunity from now on.

20/22

The details of how we hold Republicans responsible for the obscenities they're about to commit will depend on the details of what =they= do. But the broad outlines of our response are necessarily clear.

21/22

We must remove Republicans from power at the ballot box in '24 and '26 and '28, and in all special elections, and in every election from now until the end of time--and never let them take charge again.

#VoteBlueToSaveAmerica

22/22