It's been a year since the attack on the American capitol. But here's a depressing number. Edward Keenan writes that:
One year after Jan. 6, 2021, only 55 per cent of Americans believe President Joe Biden legitimately won the election. That is depressingly close to the percentage of voters (51.3) who voted for Biden. Trump’s big lie, the one that inspired the insurrectionist assault on the Capitol a year ago, has prevailed against all evidence for a huge chunk of the public, including the roughly 75 per cent of Republicans who doubt the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency.
Trump himself has recast the Capitol riot as a glorious protest against the “real insurrection” that he says happened on election day, and has portrayed the rioters as martyrs and political prisoners. Most of the Republicans who seemed ready to abandon him in the aftermath of the Capitol storming have either come back to his side or fallen silent. Those like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who serve on the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 commission and refuse to stop speaking about the danger of Trump’s culpability for that day, have been essentially exiled from the party.
As much as — or perhaps even more than — before, it is Trump’s party.
And, in the year since the attack, Republican state legislatures have been rewriting the rules about elections:
Republican-led state governments have been rewriting rules to further ensure majorities for themselves, to restrict voting in ways that seem likely to suppress Democratic constituencies, and to give partisan political figures power over federal election results and the authority to overturn them. Election authorities who stood up to Trump’s attempts to fraudulently overturn his election loss are being hounded out of office and replaced by Trump loyalists.
Keenan covered the attack for The Toronto Star:
A year ago, as I stood on the Capitol steps while the rioters rampaged, one of them said, “This could be the start of something.” Another replied, “Oh, it is. Today changes everything.” I wrote then that the change might be different than what they were expecting, that it might be the end of the indulgence of Trump.
One year later, it seems like the rioters were right. Their message has been embraced by many Americans, and their larger goals are now being pursued by other means. Their attack on the Capitol wasn’t the end of their attack on American democracy. And so the insurrection continues.
Never underestimate the power of a lie.
Image: AZ Quotes
8 comments:
Not to rain on Mr Keenan’s parade.. it’s important stuff to consider - but where did he pull the numbers from ? I cannot ‘weigh’ the article with an un referenced anchor like that being dragged along. I read articles with a hook like that and I see vote suppression or misinformation 101
Put another way.. I may be old school but to believe the article it’s hard not to wonder if old lead water pipes & lead solder are the key driver of idiocy in the United States, Land of the Free and the Home of Mass Incremental Lead Poisoning
Al Jazeera paints the 1/6 insurrection as a faint echo of the 9/11 attacks and singles out Canada for appeasing Trump in the name of "sensible centrism."
Perhaps there's something to your lead poisoning thesis, sal. But explaining insanity isn't easy.
Al Jazeera's concept of "centrism" is curious, Mound. These days "the centre" is always shifting.
Lies big and small tend to fall apart when people are put under oath in court. The insurrection continues because the ringleaders haven't been indicted and are free to use that fact to argue, as Steve Bannon does, that what happened a year ago wasn't an insurrection. If it was, he argues, people would have been charged with that.
The press corps actually facilitates lying with its "We report, you decide" approach to the news. The media's still treating treason as if there were two sides. This elevates lies to the level of truth, making everything seem as good or bad as everything else, and giving the impression that nothing matters. The result is a confused population ripe for charlatans.
The combination of Garland sitting on his hands and the media's refusal to challenge lies does not bode well for democracy.
Cap
Justice will only happen when people label injustice for what it is, Cap.
Centralism is an idea on how to organize a state or government.
The idea is to focus such an organization under a single government instead of using many local government bodies. An organization that is an example for Centralism is the Roman Catholic Church. “Sensible Centralism can be compared with a German brand of movability of issues. This can suit a leader at any time to draw upon any idiotic idea that enters the head at any time of the day in any place??? Anyong
Centrism can stifle debate, Anyong.
Post a Comment