No argument, though we should hold a modern political movement to a far higher standard than merely being a bit less malevolent than the nascent Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei.
This has so far been a case in which history’s lessons have been well-learned by enough people and, probably more importantly, by enough of the right people – with the knowledge and position to put up meaningful resistance.
I was reading r/conservative on Reddit on Wednesday. Reading them howl and wail was a lot like getting a big hug from someone you love. Very satisfying.
But a common refrain in the comments was that MAGA was, or should be done, and that they were a blight on the party, etc…
Combine that with the fact that people like Karl Rove and Tucker Carlson came out against Ken Paxton and Trump respectively, means that something’s afoot on that side of the aisle.
Maybe it’s the realization that Trump’s problems and baggage are far more unpopular than they’d actually realized, maybe it’s a notion that now they finally don’t have the tiger by the tail, or something else.
The conspiracy theory gremlin that lives in my head wonders if maybe they tried to cheat and rig the election themselves, but were so overwhelmed by democratic voters that any investigation or crying on their part would only reveal their malfeasance.
The Republicans have for a long time hoped to turn America into a one-party state; not in the overt sense of banning opposition parties but in the sense of being a national-scale political machine with the perpetual support of the majority of voters. With the Democrats reduced to the role of court jester, whose perennially losing would validate the Republican supermajority. The Republicans had hoped that Trump and MAGA might be the starting core of this movement and therefore useful, but I doubt the majority of Republicans ever actually liked Trump. Now that it appears that Trump has “failed” the Party, the Republicans are looking to a post-Trump future.
The usual rigged election nonsense cultivates ignorance. In the Alaska senate race, that could get really awkward. Granted, with only 74% of the votes counted, it’s too early to say much. The numbers we see now look like they would trigger the ranked choice voting calculations.
It looks to me like the second choices on the also-rans would break heavily republican. One of them is a republican, most of those voters would be more likely to choose Sullivan. The other is Dan the teacher. It’s hard to say for him but would likely be a somewhat even split.
The current numbers show Peltola just barely ahead and below 50%. RCV would tip that the other way. If things were tipping the other way, the would have the perfect excuse to cultivate ignorance by claiming it is rigged. The way things actually are, they would need to explain the math to the cult.