The senator said he has “a hard time understanding” why Trump’s legal issues don’t “seem to be moving the needle” with more voters.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called out the majority of Iowa Republican caucus voters who baselessly believe that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately.
“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them,” Romney, who announced in September that he is not seeking reelection, told CNN journalist Manu Raju on Wednesday.
About 65% of Iowa caucusgoers said they believe former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, according to entrance poll data.
The problem is that this didn’t start with Trump. He is just the perfect type of candidate to harness the lightning.
That mentality started with Lee Atwater and has slowly mutated into what it is today. All of the signs were there. It’s why John McCain had such a hard time and why he had to have a “firebrand” as a running mate
The group at the center of a lot of the mutation is Fox News. Without their dedication to creating an alternate universe of reality, I don’t think things would be as bad.
There’s a pretty good documentary on Lee Atwater called Boogey Man and it’s on Prime right now.
Always thought it was super weird that John McCain was too left for some people
Incidentally, McCain was the last Republican presidential candidate I seriously evaluated as a possible choice, though I did end up voting for Obama.
At the time, I thought that if we had McCain as President, we wouldn’t have to listen to the GOP go after Clinton for four years. I soon realized that any Dem, no matter who, was demonic in their eyes.
The modern Conservative movement found President Eisenhower too far to the Left.
Hell, some John Birch Society loons thought Nixon was too far to the left.
Nixon.
He had some shitty beliefs and policies but dude was a POW. I could respect him for that.
It predates Atwater. We should acknowledge the fact that Republicans planned a coup around the same time as Hitler’s beer hall putch. FDR then cut a deal with the fascist Republicans to temporarily pass his new deal policies. In exchange for not prosecuting and locking them up.
We should also acknowledge the fact that the man most likely to have been tapped as their fascist dictator had. His son and grandson go on to be president of the United States. Some of the most damaging ones
That isn’t to downplay Atwater and his contemporaries. They managed the merger of the two most evil groups in modern American history. After the Democratic party purged itself. The fact is the Republican party has been anti-democratic and authoritarian since nearly the start of the 20th century.
We should acknowledge the fact that Republicans planned a coup around the same time as Hitler’s beer hall putch.
Do you have a link on that, that someone can read up on?
Read more history:
Unfortunately, I’m not aware of anything good that lays this out specifically… Or anything truly authoritative. But do a deep dive on the business plot AKA the Wall Street putch.
The fact there isn’t a lot of documentation about it is almost as damning as if there was. So yes this gets a bit into conspiracy theory territory. But it is conspiracy theory well-backed by history and rationality.
Official accounts tend to only name the person that contacted to enlist Butler. Gerald MacGuire. Who promised Butler half a million troops to march on Washington as well as large financial backing. All to stop Roosevelt and his new deal.
There were hearings held on it. Investigations even. The New York Times a long with much US media at the time initially called it a “gigantic hoax”. That characterization later turned to “alarmingly true” and that “definite proof had been found that the much publicized Fascist march on Washington”
So then, if this was alarmingly true. And definitive proof had been found. Who were these 500,00 troops? Who were these financial backers? Why don’t we know? Why was no one really punished? Why is this so sketchy, and why have people generally been okay with this?
What we do know, is that the Republican party was traditionally the party of industrialists and corporations. And that many of the owners of industry and corporations sympathized with the Nazis. IBM for instance, helping the Nazis create a computerized system to track Jews on way to slaughter. And Dow chemical helped them to create the gas to kill them with. We know for a fact that Republicans have gnashed their teeth, moaning about The new deal for the last century. As well as the fact that despite not knowing the names. A number of Republican senators were implicated.
The most rational explanation I’ve seen for it. Happens to coincide with FDR’s New deal. Basically claiming that in return for not expelling, prosecuting, or punishing those involved. They had to help pass his new deal package.
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in US government that rarely gets documented and publicized. That FDR used leverage to get the new deal passed seems supremely believable. And what better leverage than “We know you’re a fascist and a traitor. And we could prove it”. The package secured his legacy. In many ways it’s a very rational, and in the short term, beneficial exchange. The long term effects of letting fascism fester unpunished however. I think all of us are well versed in these days.
