Bill Berkowitz and Gale Bataille: Trump Is Incrementally Normalizing a Coup, as Media Dismisses His Efforts. He Will Stop at Nothing. Now He Has Vast Majority of GOP Leaders Backing Election Theft.
December 12, 2020
Trump keeps expanding GOP leadership support for his attempted coup (FolsomNatural)
By Bill Berkowitz and Gale Bataille
Rudy’s got the COVID
My Pillow guy is babbling again
Trump is rallying White Christians
The earth is flat
Trump’s Clown Car Posse rumbles its way across the country – led by the Super Spreader-in-Chief spewing denial about his defeat, and COVID-19 be damned. Last Saturday, Donald Trump held his first post-election rally in Valdosta, Georgia. It was a rousing, mostly un-masked affair and Trump played his hand to an almost all-white crowd. For the crowds that worship and adore Trump, his rallies and speeches are akin to a religious experience.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Clown Car Posse is running low on gas as his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and his legal advisor Jenna Ellis, have been sidelined by testing positive for the coronavirus. However, help is on the way. Recently pardoned serial liar and former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is doing his part by re-tweeting calls for the results of the election to be overturned, for the election to be nullified, and advocating that martial law be implemented. “Stop the Steal” squads are rallying across the country. USA Today reported that “Dozens of protesters gathered in front of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's home Saturday night, shouting through megaphones against the certification of the election and demanding a forensic audit.”
And what would a Clown Car be without the appearance of The My Pillow guy, Mike Lindell? In an interview at Trump’s Georgia rally, Lindell claimed that people will be jailed for letting Biden win in Georgia. “How do you not put people in prison? They will be going to prison,” he said.
With COVID deaths rapidly approaching 300,000 and nearly 200,000 new cases reported on a daily basis, always Trumper, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz recently openly violated COVID mandates by attending a Jersey City gala fundraiser hosted by New York Young Republicans.
How does one explain this post-election activity and the unabashed loyalty and devotion of Trump’s MAGA fans? Why are Trump supporters including Republican officials calling for the election of Biden to be overturned when there is no evidence of fraud? Why is the movement to limit the right to vote and overturn fundamental structures of democracy in favor of minority rule, gaining steam?
The creation of an alternate reality universe through the internet, the rise of social media and hard line conservative networks such as One America News (OAN) and Newsmax (and Fox News as well) has been explored by both progressive and mainstream media as essential to the solidification of Trumper denialism. But why has this alternate reality become so potent, taking hold so rapidly among as much as a third of Americans?
Michael Warner, a longtime activist, reminds us of the current and historical backdrop that has fueled this profound social dislocation: “Perhaps this is a bit exaggerated, but it is as if the Titanic has hit the iceberg, is sinking, and people are flailing in the ocean looking for a piece of wood or a life raft to cling to. Under these circumstances, some people look for what they perceive to be a strong authoritarian ruler to put the pieces back together. Here is a list of things [liberally edited by the authors] that might be [understood] as providing ‘background radiation’ for the descent into Trumpism”:
* The demise of labor unions and the rise of the gig economy that provides workers no benefits or job security;
* Globalization which has resulted in the outsourcing of labor and the diminution of Americans as producers or purchasers;
* The ascendance of China as a superpower that is rapidly overtaking the economic and political influence of the US; (Remember Trump’s flailing failed tariff war on China that was so devastating to American farmers?)
* Continuing fear that immigration will displace “true” white Americans;
* The effects of climate change that have contributed to increased destructiveness of wild fires, hurricanes and even the “Derecho” winds that devastated croplands in the Midwest;
* Trump’s rapid dismantling of the “administrative state” has rendered the federal government even more ineffective in addressing the needs of everyday people;
* And then there’s the Covid-19 pandemic which has rained down death and further social and economic disaster and dislocation…
This post-election denialist movement is also the product of the exercise of raw political power by elected Republicans – most cynically since the 2008 election of President Barak Obama. With the disastrous 2010 mid-term Tea Party elections and the rise of Mitch McConnell, who has served as Senate Minority or Majority Leader since 2007, conservative and increasingly far right Republicans have effectively controlled the country’s purse strings and legislative agenda. With rare exception, breaking ranks or any compromise with the Democrats on the part of an elected official has meant the end of his or her political career.
With the 2016 election of Trump, the Republican minority of the electorate reaped their harvest – and then some. The U.S. has a long and sordid history of voter suppression but the blatant and very public effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election is unprecedented.The refusal of McConnell and the rest of his gang to acknowledge Trump’s defeat is an exemplar of raw politics in action. Almost no Republican wants to risk the wrath of Trump, the threat of violence, or defeat at the polls. Even if the Democrats manage to win the two Senate seats from Georgia, minority rule will continue to gain strength through the courts and other means. This ain’t no clown car show.
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