Jennifer Rubin writes that the number of Americans who believe utter rubbish is astounding -- and dangerous:
A spate of surveys shows a significant majority of Americans (maybe 60 percent, a couple of polls report) thinks President-elect Joe Biden won the election. (This is akin to “What color is George Washington’s white horse?”) That means 40 percent or so of Americans are utterly deluded.
The consequences are grave. It gives Republicans license to continue to break norms and even the law (e.g., threaten election officials). It promotes irrational, obstructionist politics and increases the divide between Americans. Biden voters, I would guess, have never been more contemptuous of Trump voters as they are now, especially as the MAGA crowd spouts nonsense about a “Kraken.” (For those who are uncertain what this means, just remember "Q" is out and Kraken is in as the all-purpose bogeyman for the far right.)
This kind of lunacy makes it hard for democracy to function:
Conduct from Republican House and Senate members shows the pernicious effects of this cult of absurdity. Victimology and self-pity (We were denied a second Trump term!) mixed with arrogance (Only we know what really happened in those ballot-counting rooms!) do not make people amenable to compromise or empathy. Indeed, it turns seemingly capable and sane public figures into raving lunatics, uninterested in solving real problems. When you’re chasing ghosts in the Dominion Voting Systems, there is little time for real legislation. Instead, you wind up with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), formerly purveyor of Russian-inspired conspiracies, holding hearings on the nonexistent fraud that even President Trump does not really believe happened. The mega lawsuit supported by Republican state attorneys general is now about “overturning” the election results, as Trump has repeatedly said on Twitter.
The Brain Dead have taken over one of the two American political parties. Can the second be far behind?
Image: en.wikipedia.org
13 comments:
That such a large portion of the gun toting, virus spreading, Trumph supporting U.S. population continue to doubt the results of their election is very troubling for not only their democracy but that of democracy world wide. I am comforted somewhat by the continued border closing which limits the ability of these brain dead individuals to infest our country, unfortunately the illness is also easily spread via the internet so we must continue to be beware of it spreading north of the border.
Jennifer Rubin is the sort of liberal (neo-liberal) who is almost as much to blame as the Repugnicans who exploit those rubes. She champions policies ("free trade," "private health insurance," austerity, etc.,) that make life difficult for ordinary people. Some of those ordinary people are wired so that they gravitate towards the racist, ignorant Republicanism of Trump, bush II, and Ronald Reagan.
And it's not as if Democrats didn't cling to a moronic conspiracy theory about how Trump's Electoral College win in 2016 was "illegitimate" because of Russian interference.
I prefer the word "worm" to "the brain dead" as a description of most Republican members of Congress. They know what's real and true, even though many Americans don't. Even a rat can't go as low as a worm.
CD
Unfortunately, Rural, the Trump virus has gone global. Every democracy now has its Party of Denial.
America is at a crossroads. A liberal democracy can’t survive when one of its two major parties rejects the very idea of a pluralistic liberal democracy. Either the GOP or the liberal democracy will be destroyed. My money's on the last vestiges of US liberal democracy being destroyed.
Why? Because the Democrats are cowards and will allow it to happen. We saw this with the party's failure to launch impeachment hearings against Barr or Trump to derail the Coney Brown hearings. Hell, Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, even congratulated Graham on the nomination hearings! The Dems talk a good game, but rarely manage to sanction Republican lawlessness. The lack of consequences for the Iran Contra lawbreakers under Reagan led to state-sanctioned torture under Dubya, and eventually total corruption under Trump. It's a bit late in the game for Dems to start playing hardball.
Cap
Rubin is a former Republican, thwap, a conservative who left the party when it chose Trump as its standard-bearer.
Hemmingway appropriately described people like the Republicans of our day, CD. He said they were "lower than snake shit."
Trump's supporters have been reduced to a childlike mentality. They freely ignore reality to accept whatever he tells them no matter how outlandish. They're so easily distracted by the latest bright, shiny thing that he dangles in front of their faces.
It matters not a bit to them that their fuhrer has brought and lost 50 cases to overturn his defeat, a number of those cases heard by judges Trump himself nominated. They assure each other this is just another giant conspiracy, proof that America needs Trump. Those Trump judges, well they're traitors who have succumbed to the Deep State. These people are functional lunatics and there are a lot of them and a lot of those are heavily armed.
There is a reason why America's national security establishment warns that their "muscle," the various militias and such, present the greatest terrorism threat facing America. Remember what Timothy McVeigh, aided by just one sidekick, accomplished. Then remember how, earlier this week, the Arizona GOP aired messages asking if its followers were willing to die to help Trump stay in power. That's not a bunch of back alley loons. It is the state Republican organization. This is a fuse burning brightly. How in hell is Biden supposed to put that out?
catering to the brain dead,
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/10/jimmy-kimmel-trump-superman-prank
Tb
When the mob rules the roost, Mound, only a truly remarkable person can turn the tide to reason.
There's money to be made catering to the brain dead, TB -- lots of it.
From now until the end there will be at least one at every party.
Unfortunately, true, lungta. They will survive the way the cockroach survives.
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