It will be a year or so before the dissection of the election and we have a 5 foot view of this. I dont think history has been written on what happened and it might be 30 years distance that we have a narrative of how this shaked out. I wanted to respond to some of your statements and thoughts.
So I saw a piece in
the NYT last night about how a hardcore MAGAist reacted to the election, and several parts of it were fascinating to me...
I was going to say "and I thought Biden would win North Carolina". The thing is we're both wrong... though I'm wrong to the tune of 80K votes vs wrong to the tune of national fracture and fascism. I think perhaps im being too hard on myself. I worked for republicans as a closeted gay man but I never lied to myself as much as hardcore Trump voters. I have 30 or so pocket Constitution/Declaration of Indepence I'd donate if i thought they would read them.
For me, being a progressive in the age of Trump etc... it's always come from a place of urgency rather than utopian or wishful thinking. Fascism and authoritarianism feed on the disaffected. They feed on people who want a strongman to give them meaning and purpose when the free world has failed. If nothing changes, another Trump will get elected.
I don't think many of these people (trumpers) will be active in politics much longer though. Why? Because Trump is unique in this draw that even his son won't recapture. I don't see Ben Sasse leading an alt-right campaign or a Nikki Haley capturing the "Angry White Male" or Ted Cruz being liked by... anyone. For a strongman to exist there has to be a candidate that wants to be a strongman and one that can win. That said "trumpism" won't just up and disappear but there will be an internal struggle for the GOP. You will see "trumpers" being stripped away following different candidates and ideals. That's not to say there won't be dangerous idiots only that moderate Republicans are going to get a lot more powerful in their party.
Going into this election, I was so worried about widespread civil unrest if a sizeable number of hardcore Trump supporters thought that the election was unfairly stolen from them, and I wonder if the reason why that hasn't materialised (even more so than Fox News and the New York Post *thankfully* abandoning him) is that to the hardcore authoritarian mindset, fairness has very little meaning. Winning fairly and winning unfairly has very little distinction when your mindset is power and dominance.
The reason why widespread civil unrest never materialized is because most people are not the firebrand nuts you see and hear pumping up gun sales and screaming the sky is falling.
As I said in April with the idea of Covid devolving into a civil war
Again widespread civil unrest is a fantasy
Yes; there was a group of dangerous idiots planning to kidnap "that women" aka the Governor of Michigan, they were caught. Yes; there was a couple of nuts with guns in a hummer, they were turned in. Guess what they don't have the support that one you think they do, or two that even they think they have. Even the right wing and "trumpers" are not 100% in on shooting their neighbors in the face.
You point to two outlets that are owned by the same family that "trumpers" have more or less dismissed as left leaning because "the fact Rupert's sons being such lefties". I watch Fox News, it's actually more capital R Republican than conservative or trumper. At this point Fox News is completely esqued for OANN, Newsmax and to an extent The Blaze. Fox News primetime will continue to paint 'leftist" as forcing you to drink starbucks and stealing christmas regardless of who is the politician du jour but dont have the connection to the theology.
The new "trumpy" news groups are going to be what needs to be monitored.
- Newsmax seems to be more "trumpy" in that they have more ex administration officials. Though Newsmax has Mark Halperin's Focus Group which is interesting. They also like to "trump up" their headlines which is going to be difficult when Trump isnt in office.
- OANN is batshit! John Oliver did a good little piece on them. You might know them as the place with Chanel Rion who claims to have graduated from Harvard but its an associates from the extension school which is like me saying I studied at Harvard because I took a CLE course there. Watch an hour and you will hear conspiracy theory and crazy... you'll laugh till you realise it's not satire people believe this.
- The Blaze is heartland hand jobs by Glenn Beck. They also merged with 'Conservative Review' which was Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin, Steven Crowder, Phil Robertson. Other big names Rick and Bubba, Chad Prather, Steve Burguiere, and Eric Bolling formerly of Fox News.
They dont have that much room for each other so I hope that Trump does make a new network and all four collapse
I was really reflecting last night about my hopes and fears for a Biden presidency, and, look... I supported Warren and Sanders in the primaries. I'm under no illusion over who Joe Biden is, over the record he's had in the Senate... but last night, I was watching his victory speech and I couldn't help thinking that maybe he really could be the right man for the moment. Because he's had this stubborn, unwavering - and I think what a lot of people like myself thought was unrealistic - belief in bipartisanship, in unity, in unconditional love and compassion for your fellow human being no matter who they are and what they might believe. And... I think everyone else out there wants to believe in those things too right now.
And maybe that's what America needs right now - not just to... y'know, avoid another civil war, but to begin making real structural change and progress as well.
Our worst fears and greatest dreams rarely are manifest.