MAGA Protestors Break Into Capitol Hill

Yup gotta take whatever you can get from that side of the fence when you can. Even after what happened today, we can't pretend that the rest of the conservative electorate are going anywhere anytime soon as well as the electoral college.

Arizona objection was struck down but Josh Hawley still plans to object to Pennsylvania while giving up the 2 hour debate time. Unfortunately the House side fully plans on using their own 2 hours to debate bullshit. This sham will keep going probably into 4am at the rate they're moving.

MAGA Cult will not be dissuaded, insurrection attempt be damned.

At the rate things are going that party could more than likely split into the MAGA Cult and a "Lincoln Fundamentals" group. The Teds and Joshs of the GOP can kid themselves all they want that paying lip service to the Cult will somehow give them a path riding the MAGA vote to the WH but those people are forever tied to Trump. Whether it's some sense of identity or just pure nihilist entertainment they derive from the old man, I just don't see these people falling for some smooth talking slimeballs that don't emote or talk like Trump and last but not least, the Dear Leader is not the kind of guy who would want to give up the spotlight to anyone else buy himself. I figured this would eventually happen in 5 years or so but the events of today could very well accelerate that.

My guess is that Romney and Rand will form the core of the new GOP (whether they continue with the GOP name or take another name remains to be seen), with Crenshaw as their token veteran to add legitimacy. The conservatives who know how to hide their baser impulses will flock to this new party, and 2021 and 2022 will be the years of the Republican memoir that distances oneself from the Trump administration.

I mean, the fact of the matter is, Trump could run again in 2024 and the majority of people that support the GOP would still vote for him. I have people in my family that say stuff like "Well, I don't like the man...but..." and I suspect most that find themselves supporting Trump are like that.

You're probably right though that this is how they'll handle it. The sick part is going to be that it'll get treated with the same admiration and kid gloves as horseshit like the Lincoln Project.

I don't think that there is any real chance that the Republican party splits, because our current system does not support multiple parties. If the GOP were to split into Nationalist and Conservative, (or the Democrats to Centrist and Progressive) neither of those parties would ever have any power against a united opposition. It would take a fundamental change to the nature of our government for either of the two parties to ever split. More likely, the GOP will find someone slightly better at hiding their fascist tendencies than Trump was and say that is good enough.

@colourful_hippie: I still feel like the point of the Trump worship is mostly based around 'hurting those that you hate'. And that being a position that other people can fill if needed.

Trump is a person that makes it 100% clear that he only cares for those that help him remain in power and gladly fucks anyone over that's not helping him on a personal level. Pretty much everything that he stands for and does is offensive and hurtful to the population that his base hates. And that's what his supporters love most. It's not that he is the guy to finally fight for all the things republicans have cared about, free market, small government, state rights, reducing the national debt etc. It's that he's upsetting the left with every action and they can't do much against it because the president with the senate on his side can get away with a lot it turns out.

Like his brand of owning the libs is very potent across Europe as well. Just coming out of different mouths. All of these people have found their own Trump-ish politicans to support. Politicians who base their whole campaign around being THE ALTERNATIVE to the parties that are to the left of them in the political spectrum. Which tends to be all other parties.

These local Trumpians might not be Donald himself, but they are clearly alligned to him and have similar stances on the issues. And that's good enough to have very dedicated supporters. Their followers are not intoxicated by some magical Trump charisma over in the US, there are just a ton of people that hate the course the general world is moving towards on a variety of issues and want to stand behind a 'strong man' that says fuck you to the others. `You all say that there's only 1 rational choice in this matter, well.. in that case we rather choose the so-called 'irrational' choice and watch how upset y'all get about it. You tell us we have to get used to a plethora of changes happening to our society and we simply refuse to'. While the internet and community hubs circulate enough stories around to convince everyone that 'the others' are hypocritical, corrupt cheating bastards all the way through anyways, so fuck em.

I'm sure that there are a few republicans that know exactly what language they need to use from here on out to get the support of these people. Ted Cruz might smell a bit too much like a oldschool politician, but people like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene seem like naturals to me. Hell, the Republicans could even go for Trump Jr if Donald Trump is unelectable after this. That NY investigation against Trump is still a thing right?

@sethmode: The utterly ineffective, bullshit Lincoln Project that countless just-left-of-center celebrities kept retweeting uncritically. Yeah. Ugh.

Can’t post what I want without getting my comment deleted but none of these terrorists are going to face any real prison time, if at all, and NO ONE is going to do anything about it. News flash: Biden isn’t going to fix systemic education and class issues. This will only get worse, especially in another 4 years. Think outside the two party system and look to local elections, and how you can help good people get into more local office. You can have a *massive* impact, contrary to how your drop-in-the-bucket general election votes have made you feel up until now.

Here are my thoughts:

1. The 25th amendment should be used to immediately remove Trump from office. If anyone watched the rally he gave before the riots started, he clearly was encouraging his supporters to storm the Capital building. That is a crime.

2. There should be an investigation into how Trump's enraged supporters were easily able to rush the Capital building and break in with hardly any Capital police on the scene being able to stop them. And worse yet, some were caught on camera treating the rioters with kid gloves and even taking selfies and fist pounding them their support.

3. A number of people in law enforcement need to be fired for standing back and allowing this to happen on their watch, to the point the National Guard had to be called. Many D.C police were caught on camera allowing the rioters to leave with no arrest or even an attempt at an arrest. That is very disgraceful and dangerous.

4. We see yet another example of how people of color are treated when they peacefully protest, versus how right-wing extremist are treated when they act out in a violent nature. And now the rest of the world sees it too.

5. Finally, all the Republicans who stood by, enabled, and outright supported the actions of this wannabe dictator named Donald Trump need to be held accountable, including the ones that are now trying to distance themselves from him at this late hour.... it is too late.

It amazes me that there is now misinformation circulating by morons on social media that these were professional/hired actors to stir up problems for Trump.

In what world do these people live? It's pure insanity.

Made the mistake of listening to Congress' speeches after all this; some guy from Nebraska said (not exact quotes) "I've always been kind of a history nerd"--mentally pats himself on the back--and sagely reminds us "this is what happens when both sides resort to such violent rhetoric." Some good "This isn't America" and vague implications that American Ideals™ are too great to be subverted by the bad men.

Feels like being told that everything will be okay as long as you shut your mouth and close your eyes. It's disgusting.

@redwing42: Oh definitely not. I just think there will be an in-party split like with the Tea Party, and just like that, the Trumpers will eventually fall into the fold, and that's when the character "rebranding" will begin. And it will work, bringing the Trumpers in line. The one thing the GOP is great at is party loyalty as we've seen.

Finally it's over. Heres to hopefully a better 4 years everyone.

The amount of "both sides"-ing the Republicans are doing is both expected and still extremely disgusting. Anyone with half a brain cell knows why this happened, who instigated it, who supported it or and happy to stand by all these years as it lead to this moment.

@guns_n_rosaries: Care to source the incident you're claiming happened where the left invaded capital hill and attacked an in session congress to get what they want?

Are you really comparing people protesting the long running treatment and deaths of minorities to people trying to halt a lawful American election that amounted to this violence because the loser wouldn't concede defeat without claiming fraud that has been regularly disproven and shut down since he started making those claims prior to the election itself? Cause it sounds like you are.

Let's not even begin comparing a violent armed insurrection in the name of a white supremacist fascist to black people demanding cops stop killing them because a system repeatedly refuses to acknowledge their cries.

Ugh I'm glad today is over but I don't really want to find out what's happening tomorrow

@mezza: what in the world are you talking about? I made no such claim. I simply meant that one side saw that use of rioting helped them to achieve their goals, and attempted to do the same thing. To claim that the protests weren’t also riots is disingenuous. There were even tons of memes that came out about the “firey but mostly peaceful protests” with reporters standing in front of burning buildings.

@guns_n_rosaries: Just pointing out how silly it is to look at a group of people invading the capital and thinking the takeaway comment from that is "well the guys they don't like rioted so of course this was going to happen".

But yeah, your comment implied you think a group with molotovs, guns, zip ties, and explosives who stormed the capital after attending a "stop the steal" rally held by the president to prevent that presidents loss being confirmed by congress is just another riot to counter what we saw last summer. I'm not really sure what more to say than that because it pretty much spells itself out. Maybe you didn't fully intend that, but taking the "both sides do wrong" stance is really rough on this one. Just going to disagree and walkaway from that "riots" whataboutism at this point.

@guns_n_rosaries: That is exactly what you are claiming, don't pretend it isn't. Own up to your shit.

What exactly did the rioters who took advantage of BLM protests get besides broken glass and stolen merchandise?

Was wondering how long until a both-sides apologist would enter here. There is zero equivalence between opportunist rioters and rioters who invaded federal property in order to disrupt a Constitutionally mandated event. Get the fuck over yourself.

@guns_n_rosaries: One is incidental rioting that BLM leaders consistently denounced and by all legitimate reports were isolated incidents. The other is an armed insurrection to interrupt democracy, backed by the majority of a political party and the fucking President. But you knew that, MAGA chud.

@guns_n_rosaries: And how exactly do you think the BLM marches actually achieved their goal? It is pretty obvious that there is still an enormous double standard on how police treat black people vs white people. Or are you insinuating that they had some other goal?

I’ll freely say that I have no issues with the protests and property damage and all that with what went down over the summer. A great injustice was done and is still done and some things are permissible to bring that to the forefront.

Yesterday was an uprising of delusional people in support of a narcissist who will not accept reality crashing down around him.

So there’s no both sides and my only further thought on anyone who argues that is Fuck Off.

@guns_n_rosaries: What goals did the BLM protests achieve? Cops continue to get away with shooting unarmed people in the back, police budgets have not really been affected very much at all, and the supposed "left" party of the country hates their guts.

This is so bad it actually made my scalp tingle and will probably be the catalyst for this thread getting locked.

With all the practice America has had overthrowing democratically elected governments, you'd think they'd nail this one.

@boynukem: The people who overthrow democratically elected governments undergo years of training, are highly disciplined, and capable of committing crimes (international, war, etc.) without taking photographic evidence and posting it on the internet.

In other words, they are nothing like this mob.

@pajamariot: wait what? BLM has achieved a lot. Not only getting their message through the entire world, but also putting pressure on politicians to discuss systematic racism for arguable the first time. Not only that, but they absolutely had an impact on the elections.

@boynukem:

American exceptionalism at its best.

Good grief I’m out. All I said was that one side saw that another side used rioting to get results, and so they did the same, and I’m getting attacked and insulted. I didn’t condone or support a single thing, and got a MAGA chud.

I wish you all the best.

Edit: you know I decided to join GB and pay for premium because everyone seemed particularly nice at GB which was refreshing for a video game website, but getting dogpiled on and insulted like this has made me turn off my auto renew. I want nothing to do with a community like this

@guns_n_rosaries: I can entertain that maybe you didn't mean anything by it, I hope not, and if that's the case I'm sorry for the spicy responses.

But the way you expressed that was somersaulting onto a minefield.

You have a right to your opinion, just as others have a right to agree or disagree. Your problem is that you are comparing two different things. The protest and rioting because of police brutality and murder is completely different than storming a Capital building and trying to overthrow a government while in the middle of them certifying a newly elected President, because the outgoing President wants to hold onto power and fanned the flames of a coup with his supporters. That is beyond a riot and a protest, that is treason. So no, there isn't any both sides in this situation. One is far worse than the other.

@kemuri07: They may have gotten people talking, but I doubt it will result in anything changing.

That stance is still both sides bullshit. All it does is give cover to these treasonous assholes who attempted a failed insurrection.

Good riddance.

@pajamariot: How do you think change comes about though?

Like if I'm being honest these comments hit my ear real bad. People worked hard, risked a lot, sacrificed a lot. Don't come in with like "But it probably didn't mean anything in the end".

Well at least the thread got to the point where it was inevitably going to get to.

@guns_n_rosaries: Tensions are high all over american discourse right now. Which is to be expected considering what we just saw happen between extremists and our government. Not trying to excuse the name calling you received as I fully believe that everyone should take a deep breath before engaging with that level of intensity to a stranger on the internet.

But this is definitely a tread lightly with your words kinda situation. I don't believe you meant the worst with your comment but try to at least understand why comparing people pleading for civil rights is different to a political base of extremists trying to cling onto power with intimidation and violence after losing a democratic election and is inappropriate to imply that they are just two groups trading blows. The two shouldn't be treated as if they're on the same ground. It's insulting to the lives of the people lost last year in those events and the lives of the people who are still out there trying to just be treated fairly.

@efesell: I'm not sure. I do tend to be very pessimistic, which isn't very helpful.

Best case I think is that we need to get younger people into the system. Right now national government is full of people that have benefited from the status quo for decades, and see none of the issues millennials and zoomers have to live with. In that sense I think the BLM will have results, it is making those generations more interested in activism/politics. I suppose what I mean by nothing changing is referring to the short term.

@pajamariot: I mean yeah that is the state of things. There's no bandage that we're gonna rip off all at once and after a bit of pain everything will be better. It will be a slow, grinding, miserable process. I believe that we will get there, even if the world is depressing as shit in the immediate aftermath.

But even still we HAVE seen the effects. I know it's been a bit overshadowed but what's happened in Georgia is amazing, for example.

@mrtricorder: For what? They doubled down on both-sidesing this shit. If you think that’s ok, at this juncture, see Brad’s tweet upthread.

If you can't have a thread open to discuss how tragic and scary this riot was without devolving into petty insults and snarky replies then it just won't stay open.