That’s been a lot of the Trump base all along. You’re right that the “image of the Trump base” in a lot of people’s minds is some ignorant rural redneck. But he got a lot of his vote in 2016, and a lot of support since, from urban and suburban upper income people with decent educations and access to all sorts of news sources; though they may choose to ignore most of the latter.
While evangelicals did go strongly for Trump, he got a lot of support from non-evangelicals, also.
I think some of this perception of Trump voters as being all poverty-stricken uneducated rural fundamentalists is a defensive mechanism – a way for people who are none of those things to think ‘it wasn’t us! it wasn’t anybody like us!’ No, it may not have been ‘us’ in the sense of the particular individual or even that individual’s immediate social circle – but yes indeed it was ‘people like us’ who got us into this mess. Whatever socio-economic group of ‘us’ general-you think you’re in.
I think that in itself is good reason to delay trial in the Senate. Evidence is still being gathered, and won’t be anywhere near all in by the 19th.
Maybe they don’t want security because they think they’ll need their guns! And they might be in ‘say anything’ mode, to let the left think they have the Bull by the horns Because they know that something big might happen on the 20th.
Thank you very much for this link, Steve; excellent content in that particular column and I already look forward to more. Thanks again for the introduction to a good thing!
It’s not so much that McConnell is a psychopathic narcissist; it’s that he’s the leader of a party that has radicalized beyond his control and isn’t sure how to respond. He’s feeling it out.
From his point of view, there’s no harm in privately voicing tepid support for an impeachment vote in the House. He doesn’t risk anything by doing voicing such support. He’s not committing to anything; just like when he said “the electoral college has spoken,” his words can be interpreted any which way.
I think that an impeachment vote in the Senate would probably be a little more interesting this time around, but I’d be surprised if it results in a conviction. I’d love to be proven wrong, though.
I haven’t read the entire thread so this may have already been asked.
While I realize that actual charges are still being sorted out, is there any reason why everybody that entered the Capitol illegally shouldn’t be charged with treason?
I’m starting to lean towards “enemy combatants” and I think the story will get much worse once they start detailed checks of all the correspondence and financial transactions surrounding the events leading to the insurrection.
This isn’t the right thread for a full discussion of religion, but this quote says a lot:
“Part of this reckoning is: How did we get here? How were we so [easily fooled by conspiracy theories]?” he tells NPR’s Rachel Martin. “We need to make clear who we are. And our allegiance is to King Jesus, not to what boasting political leader might come next.”
So he wants to know why they’re easily fooled, and in the same paragraph, talks about allegiance to a fairy tale.
Look, okay, maybe a person reading this believes in God and whatnot, and you should be free to do that. But it’s very difficult to ignore the rather huge possibility that there might be a connection between being religious, which is a belief held without the benefit of any evidence, and a tendency to believe OTHER things for which there isn’t any evidence. There also strikes me as being an obvious connection between religion and Trumpism in a willingness to accept authoritarianism.
You have to prove intent to commit treason; some could have just gone along with protesters because they were in a mood to be rowdy. They should be prosecuted for criminal trespass or unauthorized access. I’m not in favor of 20-year prison sentences just for being a dumb ass.
Treason is a very specific charge in the US that would be exceptionally difficult to prove. 18 U.S. Code § 2381
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
I think the Oregon Capitol building breach was brought up in this thread already; if not, well, this is definitely some aftermath from people storming a Capitol, just not the one in DC:
This story is obviously getting a lot of play here in Portland. While armed protesters were trying to enter the OR Capitol, Nearman opened a lock door for them (as seen on security camera footage). The best part: not only has Nearman refused to resign, he is arguing that Speaker of the House Kotek should resign because she’s being very mean to him, and because she released the video of him several days late, just for political purposes. Of course, she didn’t actually release the video; the media obtained in through a FOIA request. Mr. Nearman isn’t too concerned with truth.
GOP congresspeople have little direct power over that, but could have had lots of influence on Pence. If 90% of House and Senate Republicans told Pence they were going to vote to impeach and convict but wanted to avoid a damaging public trial, that would have been some leverage (cf. Nixon, Richard M).
I have long thought and said here more than once that Oregon will be Ground Zero for this national conflict. It’s been a very long time coming, and unavoidably so. I wish it were not going to unfold here, but wishing changes nothing. People should keep an eye on Oregon to see what might well be coming to their own neighborhoods.
Since I live rural, I live among quite a few Trumpists. On January 5th, I listened as neighbors about a mile and a half away fired off their big guns for half the day. Hard not to think they aren’t getting ready for The Big Reckoning – whenever that may be. (We can guess.)
I’m glad my state legislators are hanging tough on the events of December 21st. The rioters were absolutely gobsmacked when they realized the state police were not going to aid them in their efforts. They turned on the cops like the vipers they are. We do have a big problem here with penetration of Trump garbage into law enforcement, but thankfully, the majority of our police do take their oaths seriously.
