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Writer's pictureHowie Klein

Does It Feel Like The Country Is Falling Apart? That's The MAGA Movement Wrecking America

Who Benefits From MAGA Besides Trump?



The far right has never gotten its story straight about what happened on Jan. 6. As Jamie Raskin noted yesterday, “They’re spreading disinformation about how it was really antifa and FBI agents which would make it strange to argue that all of these people should be released and trump is going to pardon them. Why would he want to pardon all of these antifa fighters?”


You may think QAnon/MAGA crackpot DeAnna Lorraine escaped from an insane asylum, but I’ve found no evidence of that. She participated in the coup and 2 days later she was on InfoWars, furious, according to Right Wing Watch, that conservatives were “Baselessly trying to blame the insurrection on undercover anti-fascist activists… outraged that conservatives are so ashamed of what happened that they are trying to blame the left, so she is lashing out at those who criticized the rioters, declaring that she is proud of what took place because “American patriots did this.”


“It’s time that we level up our show of force,” Lorraine said in a video she streamed Thursday from an RV in which she and others were traveling back to Texas from the rally. “For those wussies that are sitting at home right now, that are watching their Fox News and CNN and watching their social media, and you pretend like you’re a conservative, you pretend like you’re Republican, and you’re pretending like you’re fighting the commies; for you to sit there and buy into this MSM narrative, hook, line, and sinker, that we are national terrorists, domestic terrorists, that we are violent, that we were so inappropriate and so embarrassing to you guys, and you are disgusted by our display: You were never a real patriot. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“How dare you say that you’re ashamed of us,” she continued. “What kind of a patriot are you? You’re no patriot if you’re so quick to throw your fellow patriots under the bus for actually going to war and doing the dirty work that you won’t do because you’re sitting at home, comfortable on your couch, reading the MSM, and buying into their narrative, and you’re disgusted by us. We’re disgusted by you. What we saw yesterday was the most epic form of resistance that we’ve seen in some time. This was the spirit of 1776 emanating from all of us, every fiber of our beings. It was this true spirit of resistance.”
“This had to be done,” Lorraine added. “We had to level up our level of resistance and fighting back or we’ll never, ever, ever fight back and never get what we want, and we will be deserving of this government, this tyrannical government. So, let me say this: It is time— because we have tried every means, we’ve been nice, we’ve been polite, we’ve followed the rules, we’ve exhausted our legal means and our civil means, we’ve done all of that, and nothing has worked— so it is time [for] a show of force. Yesterday was symbolic, and I hope that this is the start, where we level up our show of force, where we level up our show of fight and bravery and real courage. Yesterday was symbolic, and I hope that people start seeing it as heroic and jumping in on the action and that it’s contagious— because we need more of it, not less. We need more of what happened yesterday, not less. And do not let the media brainwash you into thinking yesterday was some bad or evil or shameful thing. When I look at the images of what happened and the videos, because I was on the ground and I saw what happened and what we went through, I am proud. I’ve never felt more pride in my heart and soul than yesterday by seeing these images. And you should be proud too. And if you’re not, then you were never a real patriot, and you were never down for the cause and never wanted to fight.”“No one should be ashamed of what happened,” Lorraine concluded. “And no one should be blaming antifa for what happened. American patriots did this. And it’s a good thing. It’s not a bad thing.”


If you missed this CNN interview with terrorism expert Robert Pape, you really should watch it today. He sounds very pessimistic about how the MAGA movement is likely to play out— and it won’t be “Trump will ‘go away’ and we’ll all go back to normal again.” And speaking of normal, when, at 30, Elise Stefanik was first elected to Congress (2014) from a moderate North Country district she made a name for herself as one of the most moderate House Republicans. You would never know it today, but she used to be normal, Harvard graduate… even working at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Seems like another lifetime. She’s turned into a savage extremist, competing with other pretzels to be Trump’s running mate. Yesterday that manifested itself on Meet the Press where she labeled the J-6 prisoners “hostages,” sounding almost Marjorie Traitor Greene like by saying she has “concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages.” Basically, she was parroting Trump’s latest talking point in a try-out.


Over the weekend, John Pavlovitz wrote how people are “fully addled by a steady cocktail of Conservative media manipulation, incendiary Evangelical sermonizing, unhinged randos on YouTube, and kindred spirits on fringe message boards. In the most important election of our lifetimes, we are at the edge of a national precipice from which there is no returning. If we allow the person and the party who created, sourced, supported, and celebrated the January 6th assault on our Capitol to seize power, it will be the greatest collective failure in our history. It will mean that we will have, through some combination of fatigue, disinterest, selfishness, or laziness, failed to protect ourselves and those who will inherit this place from us after we are gone. It will be an unforgivable collaborative sin. Worst of all, it will mean that the monsters who stormed the halls of Congress three years ago looking to overturn an election, forcefully commandeer our Government, and permanently install a would-be dictator, will have succeeded. They will simply have had their victory postponed a few years. Decent human beings cannot accept this… Nothing, no voting issues of preference, no dissatisfaction with Democratic candidates, no unmet national expectations can interfere with us all consolidating our collective power and using our shared voices to unequivocally and powerfully legislatively eliminate those for whom January 6th was “no big deal” (or worse, a day worth celebrating). January 6th was a big f*ckin’ deal. It still is."


Our national sovereignty, our systems of laws and protective guardrails, the personal liberties promised by our presence here, the very bedrock of freedom and justice and equity, the human and civil rights of every human being— these better matter enough to the vast majority of Americans, that we speak one unified message: we will not allow fascism or theocracy a second chance to finish their work here.


4 Comments


ptoomey
Jan 08

We are dealing with a party-wide GOP problem--NOT a Trump problem. Biden's highly-touted Valley Forge speech continues to focus on Trump and minimize the danger posed by the GOP.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-speech-valley-forge-trump-campaign-bda2293cac2b30e49157c2e6fb256d64


Biden mentioned Trump the person countless times. His sole reference to anything broader was:


And now these MAGA voices, who know the truth about Trump on January sixth, have abandoned the truth and abandoned the democracy.


They made their choice.


Now, the rest of us, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we have to make our choice.


At this point, referring to "MAGA Republicans" is superfluous. They ARE the "mainstream Republicans" anymore. The tiny handful of GOP'ers who opposed Trump are gone.


Running once again against Trump the man--which is what Dems…

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Guest
Jan 08
Replying to

You're dealing with TWO party-wide problems. Actually you're NOT dealing with either one. You refuse to "deal" with the nazis and you are not even thinking about how to fix YOUR party problem. So... this will be as much your fault as trump's.

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THANKS FOR YOUR POST...NEVER CONSIDERED THAT REAL Jan 6ers are offended when Antfa is blamed or that it was a peaceful protest.

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Guest
Jan 08
Replying to

just as all those offended nazis will affirm the reich when (not if) they vote trump, all your side that votes biden will be reaffirming your indifference to any kind of useful ACTION to prevent it. Whatever your REAL beliefs... they will be superseded by your idiotic voting... just as they've been since the 1960s. Clutching pearls won't matter. Never has.


The shithole needs massive fixing. voting to keep it a shithole is pretty much as bad as voting to not fix it. It ain't gonna fix itself.

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