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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRight-wing pundits are convulsing over one line in Biden's speech
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/1/2028492/-Right-wing-pundits-are-convulsing-over-one-line-in-Biden-s-speech-that-defines-their-prioritiesRight-wing pundits are convulsing over one line in Biden's speech
Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
Saturday May 01, 2021 · 10:48 AM EDT
In his speech to a joint session of Congress earlier this week, President Joe Biden called for a series of programs to rescue the economy, rebuild the nations infrastructure, and help workers and families reach new levels of success. But a large number of pundits apparently heard none of that, because they were so enraged by one of Bidens opening lines, they could make it no further.
The worst pandemic in a century.
The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.
Some Republicans have determinedly nitpicked the seriousness of the pandemics threat to the economy, but its really that last line that popped a lot of pressure valves. Because accepting the idea that weve just been through the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War means accepting that the assault on the Capitol was not a peaceful protest, that it was not patriots knocking on the Capitol, and not just a visit from people who cared more about the election. It was an attempted coupan effort to overthrow a democratic election that featured would-be-assassins out to capture and kill high officials, including Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.
The insurgency was an insurgency. But Republicans cant accept that, because to do so would mean admitting theyre on the wrong side of democracy, justice, and history.
snip//
Accepting the real impact of Jan. 6 would mean acknowledging the singular nature of the event. This wasnt an assault by an outside power, off-keel gunman, or even a collection of underground extremists. This was an assault on democracy that was nourished and fed, right out in the open, by the highest levels of the Republican Party. It was the biggest threat to our democracy because, unlike any other moment, it very well could have succeeded. Forgetting for a moment how incomparable the events actually are, neither 9/11 or Pearl Harbor was an essential threat to American democracy. The Jan. 6 insurrection was.
The second reason that the right (and pseudo-left Greenwald) are so focused on this line is that they hope to prevent people from looking too much at the rest of Bidens speech. And it was a helluva speech. Its filled with not just promises, but promise. It defines a decades worth of projects that could undo four decades of sloth. Its ambitious. Its progressive. Its good. Go read it again.
That leads directly to the final reason that the right keeps pointing at this line: They have no plan. Thats not quite true, of course. They do have a plan to limit the ability of Americans to cast votes. They do have a plan to keep up the attacks on trans youth. They do have a plan to vote against everything Biden proposes, while complaining that makes him not bipartisan. They do have a plan to keep using the word socialism as if its a magical charm.
They just dont have any plan to do a single thing positive for the American people. The party of outrage has nothing but outrage left. And even that is looking very small.
Scrivener7
(50,774 posts)Occasionally a real word forms. And yet we persist in thinking their random strings of words mean anything.
Cartoonist
(7,298 posts)The Democrats need to keep hammering on that. Every election from now on, we need to frame the GOP as the enemy of democracy.
ShazzieB
(15,958 posts)It needed to be said. The Repugs needed to hear it. Watching them squirm is a nice bonus.
spanone
(135,637 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)they are all gladly collecting their checks from the very Government they tried to overthrow......all 5000? of them.......
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Framing doesn't matter. These whackaloons will grasp at anything and twist it into an attack on Democrats. President Biden made a simple, declarative (and 100% true) statement about the unsuccessful attack on the Capitol on January 6, and Republicans have come unglued. They never batted an eye when the former guy had a go at individual citizens like Khizr Khan, but their little fee-fees are damaged beyond repair when their traitors are called traitors.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)uponit7771
(90,225 posts)PatrickforB
(14,516 posts)imbeciles.
Problem is, they are well-paid imbeciles. But, yeah, I remember both me and my wife weeping when we watched these horrible traitors desecrate the Capitol. Thank God the coup failed. And I mean that seriously. Because it could have succeeded if the insurrectionists had done just a couple things differently.
CaptainTruth
(6,546 posts)Was I clear enough about my feelings?
COL Mustard
(5,784 posts)"Fuck Your Feelings". I'm with you, Captain!
SunSeeker
(51,378 posts)And almost did, were it not for the late-arriving National Guard.
kiri
(786 posts)The rioters/insurrectionists would have won, except for making a serious strategic mistake. (I have not published this analysis for fear that the jerks might make use of it 'next time'.)
Once they had breached the House and Senate chambers, all they had to do was to occupy them. Easy: open the doors and invite the whole mob in, sit in every chair. About 500 in the House; maybe 150 in the Senate. Had they done this, with a rotating reserve to bring in pizza and fill in for toilet breaks, they would have been nigh impossible to dislodge. They could have occupied Congress for at least a day, probably for several days, and wholly stopped Pence's certification process. Governing would have ended--Trump was prez.
Tear gas would not have worked very effectively since there were still many rioters outside fighting the police. Also it would have soaked into everything, making the chambers unusable for days or weeks. Use the ventilation system? It would take building engineers many, many hours to figure out if or how to use it. National Guard storming through doors controlled by those inside? No sane commander would ever order his men to attempt this.
A negotiated withdrawal? Some leaders might have emerged to speak for the mob, but this is speculative. If half the mob refused to follow, nothing would have been won.
What saved the nation was that they did not have coherent leadership, and they had no plans on what to do after they broke in.
SunSeeker
(51,378 posts)jaxexpat
(6,703 posts)That deranged sector couldn't coordinate themselves out of a paper bag. All were simply on a lark, with no expectation of result or retribution. The reasons they articulated sounded like children arguing in a playground. as they pointlessly meandered from one irreplaceable art and symbol to another, none of which they could understand. Then, on the other hand, it could have been a good thing to gut the building. An opportunity to eliminate some of the Byzantine aspects of what should be a straightforward democracy.
The scheme you narrate would likely have gone much as you say except perhaps the question of forcing them out by storming the doors. That could have been a bloody exercise for the occupants were the Army to deploy it's remote controlled offensive weapons to clear a path. So many martyrs. One shudders at the implications, much as the echo of those shudders many experienced in November 2016.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,452 posts)Republicans..
They are psychopaths narcissists.
Never figured out oppositional defiance will fail.
multigraincracker
(32,532 posts)Hang Pence?
BobTheSubgenius
(11,535 posts)Even Cornyn, in his idiotic, dunderheaded way has acknowledged the FDR that's wrapped up in this mega-plan.
usaf-vet
(6,094 posts)A bunch of monkeys in a cage wearing red hats throwing shit at passersby.
iluvtennis
(19,758 posts)hibbing
(10,076 posts)Politicub
(12,163 posts)own neck.
They planned an insurrection to stop certification of the vote. The Republicans own that now and for the rest of American history.
roamer65
(36,739 posts)- Harry S. Truman
Redleg
(5,728 posts)and the many other lies and conspiracies spread by the former occupant of the White House. When taken together with the clear intent of GOP to throw out some of the votes (mostly from majority African American precincts) and to make voting more difficult for certain people, there is clear attack on democracy and on Democrats.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)So much for the party of personal responsibility.
I hope we can continue working to make them a much smaller party, sputtering along in a few regions of the country, still snarling at the unfairness of life but out of power for a long time.
moose65
(3,164 posts)Republicans never take responsibility for ANYTHING. All they do is whine and blame whoever they can think of - libtards, Antifa, socialists. They are the biggest bunch of hypocrites ever.
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts). . .something the real troops back then couldn't do.
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)Poiuyt
(18,087 posts)marie999
(3,334 posts)what is happening in this country.
Brother Mythos
(1,442 posts)dflprincess
(28,057 posts)"The most lethal threat to the homeland today is white supremacy."
FlyingPiggy
(3,373 posts)I was hanging by a thread on Jan 20. And so SO thankful to have a reprieve from the onslaught of daily frenetic 3am tweets/gaslighting. I cant imagine continuing to feed my mind with nonstop outrage at this point. It is just not sustainable.
calimary
(80,700 posts)And repeat! Because it's necessary.
They simply DON'T want to help you. Why they want to run for office when they don't want to do anything that helps people is beyond me - except when I realize they just want to amass as much power as possible. Domination is what they're in it for. That's ALL they're in it for. Power and domination.
StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)and will no doubt continue to do so and try to turn them into a major negative in the mid-terms means that he shouldn't say it or that he should stop being aware of the problem of which he speaks.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)what a phony he is.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)It was what it looked like, a Trump inspired mob marauding through the Capital trying to overthrow the Biden win and kill Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.
cstanleytech
(26,087 posts)at the local state and county level elections as they are the backbone of the Republican parties power.
Without them the Republican party will lose steam and lose more federal elections.
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)Trump debacle. We HAVE to get more states back in our column.
LymphocyteLover
(5,601 posts)Good. They can all go fuck each other, the miserable bastards.
Kid Berwyn
(14,652 posts)Every man and woman there and the ones not there, who aided and directed.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)Retired Engineer Bob
(759 posts)To read the first few words of your title Right-wing pundits are convulsing and have evil thoughts along the line of I wonder if Putin served them tea?