Minority Report.
Who aren’t we hearing from in all of this crap going on about the coup attempt and pandemic denial?
I have mentioned quite often that according to polls the majority of Republicans support the coup attempts and oppose masks along with vaccines. We see the examples of their support on a daily basis. Their lack of patriotism and putting Trump above all else is talked about on a daily basis.
Now, I have linked pandemic denial to Trump supporters because they are one and the same for the majority of deniers. You can throw in all the rest of Republican denials as well i.e. science, racism, etc.
They are one and the same.
Peer pressure
If you’re a conservative these days there’s a lot of pressure to conform to the party line. Period. This holds true in the political as well as the non-political world. We live in an extremely conservative area so naturally Covid is rampant along with hold-out Trump signs and a smattering of Confederate flags. Lots of conservative churches. Also, lots of poverty with some wealth mixed in. (We have our fair share of the 40 million living in poverty.) Mansions and house trailers. Million dollar vacation homes on the lake used a few months out of the year. Low wage workers to support the tourist industry. It’s a heavily Republican area with a low vaccination rate.
About the coup
It was obvious from the time that Trump lost the election that he was trying to undermine the results. He egged his people on to revolt and to stop the certification process of the Electoral College. He had the support of the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives for his attempt to overturn the legitimate election results on 1/6. Had Democrats not held the House the election outcome would have been an entirely different story. Trump had a lot of Republican lackeys in the Senate as well on 1/6 willing to throw away all that our Republic has come to mean.
He came close but he didn’t make it. The 1/6 coup attempt failed. Really had they been just a little better organized they would have succeeded. Had they managed to grab up Pence, Pelosi or any number of elected officials there would have been an immediate hostage situation and that’s only if they didn’t kill them outright.
Trump was just too much of a coward to actually lead them. Can you imagine what would have happened had he had the guts to walk with the seditionists into the Capitol?
He lacked the courage of his convictions.
About the other coup attempt
In the real world arguments aren’t whether he attempted a coup or not but rather how close did he come to succeeding.
President Trump to the DOJ: “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen.”
We’re just now learning the particulars of Trump’s other coup attempt. The one that he was trying to pull off in the lead-up to the 1/6 coup attempt. He had most of the elected and appointed officials that he needed on board but was just missing key people in a couple of crucial areas. A few too many people with honor remained in his way. It was just a few but it was enough. Unfortunately for Trump too many of his rats were already leaving his sinking ship.
Rats behaved like rats.
What’s missing?
The voices of the millions of Republicans that understand what happened and perhaps disagree with it.
In other words even though 70% of Republicans think falsely that Trump one that leaves 30% that don’t believe that he won. That isn’t a small number. That’s still millions of Americans. Where’s their loud minority voice about the travesty that’s taking place?
Where are their voices?
The other other coup
Well, they aren’t saying anything because they’re either busy or kicked back biding their time.
In the elected Republican world their voices are being heard in local and state actions. They are actively pursuing voter suppression. No one can tell them to get a vaccine and wear a mask to keep them form killing people but they want to be able to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her own body. They are denying climate change. They are denying teaching history. They are denying sex education. They are denying a living wage. They are denying health care for everyone. They are denying taxing the wealthy. They are denying that systemic racism exists. They deny that white privilege exists. They are pursuing a different Republic. (Actually, they’re pursuing a theocracy.)
The majority of the Republicans that know he lost still have the same agenda that they had before. The Big Lie and 1/6 are irrelevant to them.
The truth is not their North Star.