Timeline
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Kevin McCarthy cut a secret deal with anti-democratic Republicans who want to use the debt limit to push a rightwing agenda and shut down the government.
Kevin McCarthy is neither liked, respected, nor feared by members of the House. That is why it took 15 votes and a secret deal with ultra rightwing MAGA Republicans for McCarthy to become speaker. The GOP House agenda for the next two years is revenge investigations, culture wars, and defunding Social Security and Medicare.
Three Strikes and You're Out!
Kevin McCarthy is publicly humiliated by the rightwing Freedom Caucus by being the first House majority leader to lose the floor vote for speaker in 100 years.
For years McCarthy abased himself before Donald Trump in the hope of becoming House Speaker. And then on his big day, the Republican caucus dissolved into chaos when the Freedom Caucus blocked McCarthy on three consecutive speaker floor votes. Ultra rightwing Congressman Matt Gaetz said on the House floor, "Maybe the right person for the job of speaker of the House isn't someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it."
Trump's Dinner for Schmucks
Wikipedia defines a schmuck as “stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible, or detestable person.”
Thanksgiving week Trump broke bread with an antisemitic Holocaust denier at his Mar-a-Lago home and told Ye, "I really like this guy. He gets me." With his own daughter and Jewish son-in-law declaring they want nothing to do with his re-election, Trump is counting on rightwing hate groups, white Christian nationalists, and conspiracy theorists to win the GOP primaries.
GOP Hate Politics Inspires Killing Sprees
The past six years have seen a bombardment of anti-LGBT hate from Republican extremists. This type of rhetoric has lethal consequences.
GOP leadership has not been shy about condemning the queer community. In fact, this year alone has seen more than 340 anti-LGBT bills filed. Naturally, right-wing extremists are listening, mobilizing, and taking deadly direct action around this cause.
The Biggest Loser
Republicans are calling the 2022 elections a disaster and are blaming Trump for a historic midterm election defeat.
Trump has an iron grip on the GOP base, but his brand of anti-democratic, grievance politics is alienating voters. Many of the extremists pushed by Trump in the primaries failed to win swing districts as women and young voters turnout for Democrats. The modest GOP gains in the House are mostly a result of Gerrymandered districts and control of the Senate may come down to yet another runoff election in Georgia.
The GOP Culture War Targets Schools
Rightwing extremists groups like the 1776 Project PAC are spending millions to target local school boards across the country.
After the Black Lives Matter protests, Trump mobilized his supporters to target school boards for teaching Critical Race Theory. Now there is dramatic growth of rightwing groups spending dark Super PAC money with disinformation and hyper-partisan campaigns running on banning books, demonizing LGBTQ+ students and teachers, anti-vax COVID conspiracies, and whitewashing American history.
Death Con 3 On Jewish People
Trump's GOP is repeating antisemitic tropes as a midterm election strategy to boost turnout from Christian nationalists and white supremacists.
Republicans have embraced rightwing extremists who increasingly use social media to spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. Kanye's threat of going "Death Con 3 on Jewish People." is part of a much larger wave of antisemitism that has a majority of American Jews fearing violence.
The Eye of the MAGA Storm
Florida Governor DeSantis is at the center of a right wing culture war that cruelly targets immigrants, transgender and gay children, and black voters.
There is a growing competition within the GOP leadership to win over the MAGA base by being anti-woke. Florida Governor DeSantis is leading the pack with cruel political stunts that includes arresting black voters, criminalizing gay and transgender students, and using government funds to fly legal migrants to Martha's Vineyard with false promisses of jobs and housing.
Q Is for Crazy
Trump's embrace of the QAnon conspiracy cult is encouraging violent extremists who preach domestic terrorism and political murder to restore Trump to power.
Donald Trump is losing support from Republicans and under the threat of multiple criminal investigations. Like a cornered animal or mob boss, Trump is threatening violence if he is prosecuted. Now his campaign is openly supporting QAnon conspiracies and symbols to build an army of violent extremists. The QAnon salute seen at Trump's rallies is being compared to the Sieg Heil salute used by Nazis.
Republicans Assault Law Enforcement
In response to the court ordered search of Mar-a-Lago and the recovery of top secret documents, Republicans are attacking anyone or anything that exposes Trump's lies and crimes--including the FBI.
It has been a long week for Donald Trump. The search warrant of Mar-a-Lago revealed that the FBI is investigating obstruction of justice and the Espionage Act violations. New subpoenas of Trump's attorneys and inner circle have made it clear that Trump is the target of multiple state and federal criminal investigations. In response, Republicans are doubling down on lies, accusations, and conspiracy theories that threaten violence against law enforcement agents.
The Crazies: Giuliani, Powell and Flynn
Hours before Trump summoned the mob with his infamous "Will be Wild!" tweet, an "unhinged" White House meeting almost turned violent.
On the evening of December 18, Trump met with conspiracy theorists Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn to discuss seizing voting machines as part of a conspiracy to overturn the election. The West Wing reportedly became "unhinged" during a six-hour screaming match between top White House lawyers and the conspiracy group known as the "The Crazies."
Political Violence and Death Threats
Trump's Republican Party has embraced white supremacist hate groups that preach violence against LGBTQ people.
The 31 white supremacists planning to riot at an Idaho Pride event is part of a dangerous trend in GOP politics. White nationalist and far-right groups are increasingly active in a Republican Party that tolerates political violence and death threats.
Gun Politics is Killing Children
Republicans have made fighting gun safety a cornerstone of their political identity and the result is murder.
Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and in 2020 guns killed more than 45,000 Americans. We now average more mass shooting than days in the United States. Shamelessly, the NRA is hosting Donald Trump at their annual “Legislative Action” conference this weekend, just 4 hours driving from Uvalde, Texas where a lone gunman killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers.
White Supremacy is a Poison
President Biden calls out right ”President Biden calls out right wing media and politicians for spreading the lie of Replacement Theory, that “has radicalized too many white citizens.” Biden condemned "those who spread the lie for power and political gain and for profit" Biden warns, "White supremacy is a poison running through our body politic.” In other news, DOJ has requested transcripts of the January 6 Committee interviews.
The GOP's Handmaid's Tale
Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is a radical attack on our most basic rights of privacy and freedom.
Alito's draft supreme court opinion relies heavily on the same antiquated 17th century legal writings used to establish the marital rape exemption. By overturning 50 years of precedent, the Supreme Court is laying legal groundwork to establish an American theocracy as described in The Handmaid's Tale where women are property without any basic rights or freedoms.
Right Wing Extremists Attack Zelensky
As the world unites behind Ukraine, Trump's right wing supporters cannot forgive President Zelensky for standing up to Trump.
Trump was impeached for trying to extort Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. Now Trump’s supporters are repeating Russian lies and disinformation to justify their brutal war of aggression.
Right Wingers Sucking Up to Putin
Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and rightwing media embraces Putin's strongman strategy of exploiting race, lies, and conspiracy theories to attack democracy.
Extremists are again calling on their base and channelling anti-America and authoritarian sentiments during a tumultuous time for not only the country, but especially Ukrainian civilians. Notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes has posted on Telegram that the invasion was "the coolest thing to happen since 1/6"; Tucker Carlson is minimizing the invasion and praising Putin on his news show.
GOP Endorses Political Violence
The RNC condemnation of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger raises alarms as to whether the Republican Party is still a viable party or if it has devolved into a cult of Trumpism.
Last Friday, the Republican National Convention, in their winter meeting, voted to condemn fellow Republicans working on the Jan. 6 Committee through a voice vote "without debate or discussion." This decision occurred on the same day that former VP Pence rebuked Trump's insinuation that he could overturn the election. "I don't know if we'll ever see eye to eye on that day," Pence added later.
GOP Extremists Are Banning Books
While the whole country is facing a teacher and substitute shortage, many extremist school board members are deciding it would be a better use of time and resources to ban books, instead.
As we already know, many of the same right-wingers who perpetrated and applaud the Jan. 6 attack are fighting a new front in our school boards. The reasoning given by the extremely conservative school board members for the ban of important classics—especially those dealing with race, gender, and sexuality—is to prevent children from seeing "pornography and inappropriate content." Additionally, while our schools are already in a funding and teacher crisis, Republican officials are threatening to pull money from their local library systems because they carry "homosexual materials" against Christian values.
New Front of the Culture War
Almost exactly a year after the Attack, people inside Trump's inner circle are now cooperating with the Jan 6 Committee.
Despite top officials cooperating, such as VP Pence's former security adviser Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's influence over the Republican party still holds. Many of the extremists who participated in the riots are finding a new front to fight: local politics. Their crusades have been held at school board and county health board meetings.