Q Grew in a Field Watered By GOP Lies

I my entire voting life I have never felt a place in the Republican party.  My vision of government is radically different from that of party on virtually every issue, including but not limited to foreign policy on the national level, fiscal and social policy throughout government.  That is not to say that there are a couple times I voted for a Republican for a local or state office because they were in-fact the best candidate.  But the role of the both parties is an important part of how our government works for all Americans.  Debate creates better ideas as compromise leads to a stronger and more successful government.  But for at least the last three decades one party has created an alternative universe of what more recently has been called alternative facts. 

One cannot fully trace back the origin of when the Republicans started to live in a fantasy world.  Maybe the rise of right wing radio that at first bent the truth to fit policy desires.  Maybe when a flawed Democratic Governor won the White House and there was a rich vein of gold to exploit so throwing in some pyrite would go unnoticed.  I don't know.  But by the time President Obama was elected the blurring of right wing punditry lies and the elected officials became virtually the same and thus people who would normally be shunned in the halls of power, Jim Hoft, Jerome Corsi, and Alex Jones were quoted and supported by those running for or had been elected to office.  Then the Tea Party came along and they helped elevated candidates who did not know how government worked.  Repeated slogans over ideas and voted against anything the Democrats were for.  Both small town and national voices across the radio, TV and internet were promoting nonsense not even close to facts and more and more reality became a thing debated on cable news.  Then came Trump. 

Donald Trump was a known charlatan and buffoon among his peers and neighbors in New York City.  A cartoon character of a businessman whose TV show drew viewers for its absurd storylines and later celebrity contestants.  His transformation to cartoon was complete but he had ambition to be bigger.  So to get more publicity he set off on a quest to prove the lie that President Obama was born in Kenya.  He even spoke of all the evidence he had collected in Hawaii and that "you won't believe it".  Smart people didn't believe him, but enough did that it became a get way to get more and more followers to his show and social media.  He was given air time on cable channels and there was a grown swell for him to run for President.  He did, and while at first wasn't embraced by the GOP, they had for so long created an electorate that thought much like Trump.  That misinformed opinion was equal in value to someone speaking facts.  That the media were the enemy of good Americans and that believed what he was saying because well, that part is unclear. 

Trump got elected and every fear of his supporters was realized when critics came together from both inside and outside of the Republican establishment and the Democrats began several investigations into his campaign and choices for cabinet.  So the ground was ready for what came next.  Q!

The QAnon conspiracy developed in the well fertilized ground created by the GOP over a long period of time.  Distrust of government, elected officials, the FBI, were all messages that were loud and clear from at least the 80s.  Trump elevated those ideas to 11 when he was running.  The hatred he showed for Hillary Clinton fed the first big lie about Seth Rich, a murdered staffer for then nominee Clinton.  Killed in a botched robbery the story was he was murdered by the DNC because he leaked the emails that Wikileaks obtained.  That he was going to testify.  This was promoted by the mainstream and lunatic fringe of the right wing world including prominent cable pundits and elected officials.  Like the birther conspiracy about Obama, this was easily dismissed with rational thought, but it was a horse many would ride to the point the family wanted to take legal action.  But this was now a standard in right wing circle.  So when Trump got elected he was able to basically take it anywhere he wanted.  He immediately started his Presidency by having his staff lie to the American people about crowd size and within a few days of taking office created the phrase alternative facts.  So when Q came along with crazy stories of pedophilia and child sacrifice, a secret government program to root out the deep state and arrest many leading political and media figures who were seen as opposed to Trump, and talk of an almost religious style awakening in the country many people believed it and knew their guy in the Oval Office had their backs.  President Trump played footsie with Q as he had done with others like White Nationalists and Militia groups.  Until he lost the election, and then his rhetoric got more directive.  Calling for some kind of intervention between the election and the new President taking office.  We all have seen the results of Q and the nonsense.  The attack on Comet Pizza thought to be a center for pedophilia.  A violent stand off at Hoover Dam looking for where some secret base was.  Attacks on the media and celebrities both online and direct threats.  The culmination was the attack on the Capitol that included calls for death to leading Democrats and Vice-President Pence.  All because the religious leader of Q lost the election and told them it was stolen and it was up to them to make it right. 

It would be tragic if this were all that it was, Trump had long sense disassociated himself from reality so him being the central figure of this conspiracy is not on brand.  But we are finding that the GOP has embraced the worst of the Q which recently included calling for the death of members of Congress including the speaker.  At least two members of Congress elected in November are unapologetic adherence to QAnon and their history of crazy talk including calling Sandy Hook and Parkland School Shootings false flags. The focus is the newly elected member of the House of Representatives Margery Taylor Greene who is deeply rooted in the Q conspiracy.  More and more videos of her saying things that go way beyond the pale, including harassing teenagers after a school shooting including telling them she carries a gun. The GOP doesn't seem to care just how toxic she is.  In fact the House leadership put her on the Education Committee. Even more so it is hard to find a member of the party that would call her out.  When asked on ThisWeek on ABC, "Marjorie Taylor Greene has voiced support for executing Nancy Pelosi. Is she fit to serve?"  Governor Asa Hutchinson answered "I'm not gonna answer that question as to whether she's fit to serve, because she believes in something that everybody else does not accept."

The Republican party is calling for Democrats and the President to act in the spirit of unity as they approach the date of the former President's impeachment trial for his part in the attack on the Capitol.  But they embracing the very people that fed the hysteria and lies that led to the most violent of the insurrectionists.  The party needs to purge itself of this terrible break from reality that has grown into a function of the party.  It is difficult to take the party seriously when they say things like Gov. Hutchinson said.  And we shouldn't. 

The Big LIe

Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time.  He was impeached for inciting an insurrection that encouraged hundreds of people to come to Washington DC and disrupt the counting of the Electoral Votes by Congress.  An action, that while allows for some protestation on the part of members, has been a simple function for decades and there was no real path for any protest or rally to change the outcome.  The President lost the election.  It was free and it was fair and the months of saying it was rigged, that states violated their laws, that some how there was something wrong with how everything was conducted and that he simply won was a lie.  A big lie.  A lie that would drill into the brains of the most extreme radicals in our country and inflame conspiracy theorists.  So on January 6, 2021, as the Congress began the process of doing their Constitutional obligation, members of the rally that the President called to Washington, that he told to fight, who he enraged with rhetoric of stolen elections.  

Hundreds of people attacked the woefully unsupported Capitol police and stormed into the building, a temple to democracy, through broken windows and doors.  They were looking to harm members of Congress, they built a gallows with the intent of hanging the Vice-President, who wouldn't violate his oath of office for President Trump.  Five people are dead as a result this attempted coup including two police officers.  One beaten by the crowd who died as a result, another who died by suicide.  

There is also disturbing evidence that some Republican members helped the domestic terrorists, hell bent on overthrowing the election, during the siege.  There is an investigation that some Trump supporting members of Congress even gave tours to those plotting the attack.  One is even may have used social media to direct those in the Capitol to find Speaker Pelosi and others who were targeted for possible assassination.

This coming Wednesday, Joseph Biden will become the President.  The lie that some how the election was a fraud and rigged however continues to be perpetuated by a large number of people, including members of Congress.  Some polls suggest up to 75% of Republicans think that election was stolen.  The big lie has penetrated the minds of many and among those are the most extreme people on the right.  Tens of thousands of armed troops will lock down Washington DC this week.  A place that usually has a lot of security but still felt like an American city that allowed for free movement.  Not today.  Our country is broken and the President broke it and many in the GOP took the broken piece and ran them through a meat grinder.  The pieces will be what President-elect Biden will inherit.  But now, after lying to the American people, after years of enabling Trump's attack on the American system and norms, after some members may have helped the terrorists who attacked the Capitol, there are calls for unity.  This is not time for that.  It is time to hold those accountable for what has happened to this country.  It is time to remember that elections have consequences.  It is time to build back better and if that hurts some GOP feelings, well I remember hearing a phrase about that.  Now what was it???????? 

    

We Will Remember Today

Today, January 6th, 2021 the President of the United State and a number of elected Republicans encouraged a group of terrorist to storm the Capitol Building to stop the counting of the Electoral Votes. This counting and securing the fact of Donald Trump loss was the reason.   Lying about the potential change in outcome, the President told the crowd of angry and ignorant people to go down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.  It is being reported that the Defense Department, that would have to deploy the District of Columbia's National Guard denied the mayor of DC's request for those troops.  This was the final act of a desperate wanna-be dictator and was helped by members of Congress who after egging on the crowd were later forced to hide under their desks and in offices and closets.  

I wish this was surprising.  It isn't.  It was 100% predictable.  In fact for months people joked about it.  The President of the United States has for five years created a cult-like group of supporters who are willing to believe this President even when reality stands in the way.  When Trump said more than 4 years ago said that he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose support.  Today he loaded the gun and pointed it at Congress.  So I ask, will there still be people supporting him now.  Apparently yes.  All over social media and in some of the right wing noise machine, they are justifying the attack on very democratic principles that rule our country.  And in the halls of Congress.  The coup enablers who started the day strutting for the terrorist and with the intention of dragging out the eventual certification of Joe Biden as President.  

I wish this was just a gang of members of the lunatic fringe.  This has become baked into the Republican party thanks to their desire to stay in the President's favor.  It has to be purged and it can only be done from the inside.   The people who are continuing to bring the objections to the Electoral votes should be treated as pariahs both inside the halls of Congress and when interviewed by the media.  And when they run for President in 4 years, because this is what it is about, this should hang around their necks and the violence we saw today should be played for them and they should be asked if they feel responsible.  

I feel bad for the country tonight, there is a lot to think about with what happened today.  We will have to spend more time thinking about it.  But tonight we have to keep in mind that today there was an attempt to overthrow the country's government from the Oval Office.  It didn't work.  Tonight our country is broken and we know who broke it.  It is time to hold those who did accountable.  

This Is Not America

This week Congress will hear and acknowledge the results of Electoral College vote which gave Joseph Biden 307 Electoral votes, more than the 270 required to be President.  Each state has certified these results and this proforma action is just another layer in our antiquated system we have to elect the President.  Most of the time we don't even hear about it.  But this year there plans to be drama.  Several Republicans will challenge the Electors from a few of the swing states.  However, this is not a protest as has been in the past.  Nor is it a defense of the Constitution.  It is an act of desperate members of the party who want to inherit the misinformed Trump supporters who still believe Trump will be President for 4 more years.  Some are positioning themselves to be the front runner for 2024.  In a cynical attempt to do so they are putting our democratic principles at risk and in some cases inciting violence.  

Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are leading the way.  Both Cruz and Hawley have ambitions for the Oval Office and so they are courting the far right that helped get Trump elected.  They have been outspoken in that they will join any members from the House to reject Electors.  But this won't do anything.  There is no way that both chambers will vote to throw out any and that is all that can happen.  Cruz knows this.  He is now asking for a 10 day delay to audit elections that have already been recounted, audited, etc. etc. etc.  Biden has now had so many victories just in the state of Georgia that people have taken to calling him Sherman.  These actions erode the trust in our systems, give our enemies a talking point when we call for more democratic actions in other nations and continues to feed an unhinged populace that seem ready to attack anyone who doesn't praise/worship Donald Trump.  But they are not the most dangerous though I truly fear the long term effects of this ridiculous endeavor. 

Louie Gohmert, a member of the House from Texas had tried to sue the Vice-President to throw out Electors from several states.  A federal judge dismissed this as the nonsense that it is.  On Newsmax this week Gohmert responded,  “But bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy’—basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.”  So the right wing myth of those groups is that they are uberviolent so it appears that Gohmert, a lawyer, a former judge, a member of the US House of Representatives, is calling for an overthrow of the legally elected President and Vice-President.  This is beyond unacceptable.  This truly is a call to sedition.  Coupled with the fact that organizations are already planning on being in Washington DC on January 6th when the joint session of Congress will accept the Electors this is dangerous and I dare say maybe illegal.  If nothing else the FBI should have a long sit down with the representative to explain, in detail what he is saying because perhaps he really is too dimwitted to understand.  I hope that the House sanctions him and any other member who has supported violence over reality. 

But the worst of the bunch is the President himself.  He has called for citizens to gather on January 6th and he too is close to calling for violence.  One of the lawyers taking up the cause has even called for the Vice President, Mike Pence, to be executed over not being more forceful in trying to steal the election.  The President continues to make outrageously false statements inciting anger among his base that now are openly calling for Civil War.  My guess is that in the next few days there will be violent clashes in the streets and we can lay that all at the feet of a party, led by a man who demands loyalty but never does anything to earn it, who a disagreement is akin to attempted assassination.  Donald Trump sees the world only in how it can benefit him and he is willing to tear down everything as he is ushered out the door.  And that is not surprising.  He has always been like that.  He cares little for others unless he sees some way they can give him what he wants.  What has been surprising is the number of people who are willing to sell their souls to him when he wouldn't lift a finger to help them.  And do so at the risk of destroying the republic.  

Donald Trump has always been a danger and in four years he has managed to set our country back quite a bit, but the institutions still help.  However his wake looks even more disturbing as people are willing to call out for armed insurrection to protect Trump's fragile ego and position themselves to be the new leader of the groups they are radicalizing.   This is not who our country should be, and if it is then it is time to purge those who are making it such.  The coming week is going to be a difficult one I imagine.  The Senate elections in Georgia which can go either way.  The joint session and the final step in Biden becoming President and of course the very real threats of violence that are being spread on social media could come to a head in either place.  If you vote Republican and love this country I beg you to stop electing people like Gohmert, Hawley and Cruz.  There are better people who will take up conservative causes without feeling they are worth sacrificing American ones.  Speak out.  I rant on here to a deaf audience in part because I am a nobody liberal without power.  I can call out Mike Braun, my Senator who is joining Cruz but there is nothing I can think that would have ever gotten me to vote for him so he doesn't care about me.  But if you are a Republican, you might be able to make a difference.  Remember to country over party.  To put democracy over authoritarianism.  You don't have follow the carnival barkers who feast on the anger of the crowd.  Be Better.  Help heal the country.  It is your United States as well.  Don't let the greedy, the cynical and the conmen take that away.