Republicans, conservatives, and the so-called evangelical Christians love to whine about the policies they believe are unfair to them. “Isn’t it just awful what the liberals and the far-left have done to our nation with their socialist policies,” they say to each other, wringing their hands, before going about their daily lives. But it’s time for the right to stop playing the victim and realize that the enemy within is themselves.
After a humiliating loss in the 2020 election, former President Trump and his loyalists needed to find an enemy to blame, so their cry became: “Look what the far-left media and their allies in Big Tech did to us!”
It was not surprising, given their constant complaints about the “disgraceful far-left bias in the media, academia, entertainment” and, of late, “science and medicine.”
For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to Republican’s incessant whining. But what they generally do is howl at the moon.
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The last time I checked, there were thousands of Republican, conservative, libertarian and traditional faith-based millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires who have amassed collective wealth exceeding $1 trillion. Surely that’s enough money to invest in a few newspapers, fund television networks, start a few universities, or create some Big Tech sites of their own.
But they are not using their money to foment progress. Instead, they are using it to try to turn back the clock and spring the country back in time. They are using their money to promote and perpetuating a big lie that threatens to destroy our democracy.
At a remarkable press conference following the deadly attack o the US Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Democratic members of Congress were in physical fear for their lives, afraid that the mob attack of January 6 would be the precursor to violent assaults against them by Republican representatives.
She said there would have to be additional funding “for more security for members, when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about in addition to what is happening outside.”
When a reporter asked, “What did you mean when you said the enemy is within?” Pelosi replied, “It means we have members of Congress that want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress.” Or, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, there is now an outright white supremacist faction among the Republicans in the House, who have repeatedly threatened violence against Democrats.
These fascists include several Republican representatives, among them Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who are known to carry weapons inside the Capitol, and who have reportedly violated the prohibition against bringing those weapons onto the floor of the House of Representatives.
Boebert may well have been in contact with the attackers during the events of January 6. She tweeted that morning that “today is 1776,” and put details of Pelosi’s own movements on social media while the attackers were rampaging through the building threatening violence against Pelosi, Vice President Pence and others.
Taylor Greene ran campaign ads last year in which she aimed an assault rifle at photos of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. she also suggested that the only way to solve the US problems is with a bullet in Pelosi’s head. she also endorsed the assassination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, all for alleged “treason” against President Trump.
As a result of that victory, the Democratic Party now controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. In terms of the parliamentary arithmetic, it exercises near-total power. YetDemocratic leaders conduct themselves in fear by the threat of fascist violence.
Instead of addressing the political crisis, Republicans are responding by redoubling their efforts to provoke fascist violence against the Democrats and sustain Trump’s lies about a “stolen election.”
In just the past week, Georgia Republicans passed a sweeping bill that will restrict voting access and makes it illegal to take food or water to voters in line.
Other Republican states are considering similar measures.
The hoary glorifications of the invincibility and timelessness of American democracy have been totally exposed and discredited as a hollow political myth. The popular phrase “It Can’t Happen Here,” taken from the title of Sinclair Lewis’ justly famous fictional account of the rise of American fascism, has been decisively overtaken by events. Not only can a fascist coup happen here. It has happened here.
The defense of democratic rights cannot be entrusted to Republicans, because they only care about holding into power at all cost.
