The US Mid-Term Elections 2022

[broncofan]

There's been a lot of continuity, but nonetheless it's alarming how quickly the Republican Party has been taken over by the crazies and extremists. January 6 was obviously a watershed moment and all but a few quickly decided to acquiesce in election denialism and resist any accountability for what happened. Two years after Kevin McCarthy said there was no place in the party for QAnon he is now embracing them. Some Republicans are now talking openly about anti-democratic solutions and ignoring the courts.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...edpill-moldbug

I really wonder what is going through the minds of the more normal Republicans (politicians and voters). I know some have quit, but there's no sign of mass desertions. Are they in denial about what is happening? Do they think they can keep their positions by appeasing the crazies? Do they not care as long as they get low taxes and deregulation?

I agree with you about the continuity. The Clinton years were insane, the Bush years were pretty awful, and the tea party movement was a grassroots right-wing grievance machine built on a foundation of conspiracy theories.

I think the rational Republicans who still vote Trump are only rational in the sense that they themselves observe norms and can rationally explain why they support conservative policies. But I think they are irrational in their beliefs about what liberals want. They think liberals want to reward people who aren't working instead of providing a social safety net. But as you say, the biggest problem is their priorities. They regard policies they disagree with, like comprehensive healthcare or student debt relief, as being worse than a President who says dangerous and false things that get people killed or who completely corrupts every branch of federal government.

[Stavros]

For a guy who cannot even master the simplest subject, Trump seems to tap into the Republican zeitgeist and pick up themes and grievances very easily. Sometimes they are grievances he shares but there's something very predatory about the way he exploits other people's grievances.

Your use of the word 'Predatory' seems apt as Bannon, perhaps facing jail-time, has not only lashed out again at Dr Fauci, but said 'when' the Republicans win the Mid-Terms, Fauci and his family will be 'hunted' -but is this rhetoric, or a threat, and from a man who wanted to decapitate Fauci and put his severed head on a pike outside the White House?

It does sound grandiloquent, but the more serious question arises from that video by JD Vance I posted a few days ago, because if you identify the Grievances Trump and his Apostles have, how are they to remedy them?

You have seen the Supreme Court shred most of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and Roe-v-Wade, and that both have enabled those who want to, to halt Abortions, suppress the Black Vote, make Registration harder, shut own Polling Stations on Election Day, and re-draw the boundaries of Congressional Districts to make it impossible for Black Elected Officials to make it. But with Vance's attack on the Universities as 'the Enemy', one asks how this translates into action.

Is Vance going to re-invent himself as a Little Stalin or Mao and purge the Universities of the 'Liberals' who work there? Will there be a test which involves tenured academics being asked to take a stand on LGBTQ+ issues, but notably Gender issues, and if they fail, will they be sacked? And as a consequence, a) would this be legal? and b) who replaces them?

It is one thing to have a grievance, another to remedy it. It might appear easier with single issues like Abortion and Voting, but in the Academy, the breadth of knowledge and debate is surely too wide, and diverse to be reduced to the status of 'the Enemy' -for surely the only sure remedy is to shut the Universities down? And if it is the belief that children in schools and young people in universities are being indoctrinated, then the curriculum must conform to whatever JD Vance says is the truth, and teachers be forced to teach it- this would be State Indoctrination more transparent than what Vance says is happening now, and in academic terms, a rejection of freedom of thought and expression.

The man who claims to believe in Freedom, wants to Dictate to your children what they shall read and learn. That way Perdition lies, and liberty crushed by a plastic boot.

[filghy2]

For a guy who cannot even master the simplest subject, Trump seems to tap into the Republican zeitgeist and pick up themes and grievances very easily. Sometimes they are grievances he shares but there's something very predatory about the way he exploits other people's grievances.

It's uncanny how Trump has spawned a political movement and hijacked a major political party without any coherent ideas, just egotism and a bunch of prejudices. His record in office was just a bunch of gestures, with no coherent program and no understanding of how to achieve change, but this has not fazed his fans. A bunch of disparate people seem to have latched onto him as a useful vehicle because of his ability to appeal to peoples' grievances and his willingness to ignore any rules.

[filghy2]

I think the rational Republicans who still vote Trump are only rational in the sense that they themselves observe norms and can rationally explain why they support conservative policies. But I think they are irrational in their beliefs about what liberals want. They think liberals want to reward people who aren't working instead of providing a social safety net. But as you say, the biggest problem is their priorities. They regard policies they disagree with, like comprehensive healthcare or student debt relief, as being worse than a President who says dangerous and false things that get people killed or who completely corrupts every branch of federal government.

I think it's a way of resolving cognitive dissonance. In order to rationalise standing with extremists who are willing to blow up the system, they have to convince themselves that the other side poses a bigger threat. You will recall that our old sparring partner liked to invoke the BLM protests to minimise the January 6 insurrection.

[Stavros]

Last night on ITV there was a documentary: America: the War Within, in which US correspondent Robert Moore talked to Republican Rusty Bowers in Arizona -exiled in his own State, the target of filthy and threatening abuse-, and then Mark Finchem, who denies Biden won the election but cannot cite real proof the election in Arizona was rigged. The mind-set here, and in Tennessee where he interviewed 'Pastor' Greg Locke, is one in which the American system of democracy has become either irrelevant, or an existential threat to their way of life. There is also footage of Lauren Boebert telling people to be happy they are living in the 'End Times' and will see the Second Coming of Jesus. What these people have to do with Christianity I don't know, it is not what I learned when I was growing up. No Love, no compassion or forgiveness, but lots of Rage, Threats and images of extinction.

But, on the other hand, they represent a minority of Americans, so the question is how does this 'other America' assert itself, and what will happen if, having captured key offices in the State, Republicans challenge every vote, in effect saying 'we will get this right until it is the outcome we want' -? It represents a fracture that might not be healed, but should we at least feel confident that more Americans want to maintain their Liberal Democracy than want to replace it with a race-based 'Christian Nationalism'?

The link is here, not sure if it works outside the UK.
America: The War Within - America: The War Within - ITV Hub

[filghy2]

I doubt that many of these people believe genuinely that the last election was rigged, though many of their idiot supporters might. It seems to be a veneer covering their true belief that the other side cannot be a legitimate government because they are "un-American".

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case on the "independent state legislature" doctrine. If endorsed, this could pave the way for Republican-controlled state legislatures to simply ignore the vote in Presidential elections and choose their own electoral college delegates. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/26/p...ump/index.html
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-wo...eory-explained

I recall there was talk of trying to pass a minimal electoral reform bill to ensure that states followed the result of the vote. I assume this hasn't happened.

[Stavros]

All good points, filghy2. The question must be whether or not the Confederate States have passed a point of No Return. If State's Rights becomes State Power, and then State Autonomy, what can the Federal Govt to impose its will or even the rule of law on an entire State? The only real mechanism here is in the Republican Party 'taking back control' from the Trumpits, but as Americans have seen Kevin McCarthy and Mitchell McConnell enable Trump and his supporters, I fear there may be no way back, that the Party has given up on America, its Constitution and the Rule of Law. What they want in its place could well lead to emigration by Democrats and those opposed to Christian Nationalism, and immigration by those who do. It means people leaving Idaho for Illinois and its reverse. It is in a way rather like the UK leaving the EU, only the Republicans have to decide if they are going to create their own currency, impose border controls, and in effect take their 'Autonomy' to the next level.

I think it was assumed Trump was an aberration, a blip, a temporary setback. It may yet be, but the future is both orange and not bright.

[filghy2]

Would the right be satisfied with imposing their will on red and purple states, though? That has not been the case on abortion. It's not in the nature of authoritarian zealots to live and let live.

Intellectual consistency does not seem to matter. The party that has previously defended the right of corporations to do as they wish is now willing to use the power of the state to punish corporations that do things the right don't like. I think states rights are also a one way street for them. If they control the federal government they will try to use federal power against Democrat states.

[Stavros]

Would the right be satisfied with imposing their will on red and purple states, though? That has not been the case on abortion. It's not in the nature of authoritarian zealots to live and let live.

Intellectual consistency does not seem to matter. The party that has previously defended the right of corporations to do as they wish is now willing to use the power of the state to punish corporations that do things the right don't like. I think states rights are also a one way street for them. If they control the federal government they will try to use federal power against Democrat states.

Indeed, for the contradiction lies in the State's Right's argument -if 'the Feds' are no longer relevant, why bother going to Congress or seeking the Presidency? In Trump's case, the Presidency is all about his ego and the opportunity to make money, so that could happen and not affect the break-up of the Union. But for the others it makes no sense, just as Randal Paul claims to be a Libertarian who wants to get Govt out of people's lives, but sits in Congress which is one of the three branches of... Government...

[Stavros]

So now it seems real power is local power, and the Sheriff is the ultimate authority. Scary.

"The "constitutional sheriffs" movement, which has ties to the Oath Keepers and other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the legally dubious belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties, superseding state and federal officials, including the U.S. president. In recent years, self-appointed constitutional sheriffs have refused to enforce various laws that they deem unconstitutional, from state and federal gun laws to pandemic-era mask mandates."
‘Constitutional’ sheriffs movement urges law enforcement to intervene in election process (yahoo.com)

See also
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association - Wikipedia