Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They're Not Out to Get You

I know it's useless to let all of this national-level political stuff roil around in my head, but I have to put down these bits I have seen in the past couple of days since the sham impeachment trial has fully shaped up in the Senate.

First, this from Vox's Dave Roberts on Twitter:

This is an obvious prediction, but I want to get it on record. The GOP just released Trump from any accountability for trying to cheat in the upcoming election. That's one sign of many that they are going to try to rig the election, in a range of illegal and semi-legal ways.

Now, what do we know about the reactionary mind? When it is contemplating or planning some offense, it must convince itself that its opponents are *already doing* whatever the offense is -- so that it has "no choice" but to do it to. Projection. Predictable as clockwork.

Put 1 and 2 together and you get my prediction: starting pretty soon, conservatives are going to start accusing Democrats of cheating and election fraud. They might find some half- or quasi-truth to hang it on, but that's not necessary. The bubble can just invent stuff these days.

They are going to start these accusations early and aggressively, which offers two advantages. First, when Democrats start pointing out *actual* examples of cheating and election fraud, conservatives will say they're just doing it in response, trying to wriggle out of something.

And more importantly, putting accusations in the air early means that when their own cheating and fraud are pointed out, the media will cover it as a "both sides are accusing each other of cheating, isn't partisanship terrible" story.

Remember, their case doesn't need to be plausible, any more than Trump's Ukraine defense was plausible. They won't mind looking silly or being "fact-checked" by the mainstream media. They just need to keep both-sides chaff in the air long enough for them to get away with it.

They don't care if, months or years later, people look back and conclude, "oh, yeah, they were cheating." I mean, it's pretty obvious by now that they stole the 2000 presidential election, but what do they care? They got the power when it mattered.

And if they do win in 2020, they can spend the next four years dismantling whatever checks remain on their cheating, so that there will be no more embarrassing revelations. This is likely the last election in which institutions have any power to restrain them.

This election has existential stakes for the current configuration of conservatism. Their demographic is shrinking and their hold on power requires increasingly anti-democratic measures. They will do *anything* to win this one -- more than Democrats are prepared for, I suspect.

Anyway, there you have it: watch for a growing wave of stories from the right-wing swamp that Democrats are cheating. It will rise to a crescendo as the election approaches. Democrats will be caught flat-footed, the media will fall for it, and it'll probably work. Sigh.

Then this from Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, written last Friday to give his analysis of his Republican colleagues' world view and how it plays into their votes on the witness question and impeachment generally:

For tonight's impeachment behind-the-scenes, something different:

I want to tell you my theory about why Democrats and Republicans are on different planets during this trial. I want to tell you why we could only get two Republican votes today against a rigged trial. This is important.

Democrats, like the majority of Americans, view Trump as a threat to democracy, and this trial put on evidence of the most serious example of this threat — his use of his official powers to destroy his political rivals and cheat in an election.

Many (most?) Republicans, as shown in Sen. Alexander's statement, also think Trump is reckless and dangerous. But what you need to understand is that they think there exists a MUCH bigger threat to democracy than Trump — the deep state/media elite conspiracy.

For them, this trial is ALSO about evidence of the most serious threat to democracy — an anti-Trump whistleblower, working with secret Republican-hating Democratic civil servants, backed by the liberal media, attempting to take down a conservative, Republican president.

You see, many Republicans don't think any self-respecting conservative would EVER work for government or the mainstream media, so all these people testifying and breaking stories MUST be Democrats, and they must have political agendas.

Republicans don't love Trump, but they do believe that if they don't stand up to this deep state/media cabal RIGHT NOW, then they set a precedent that will allow this same conspiracy to take down every future Republican president.

This is a CRAZY view of the world (I'm just explaining, not excusing), but I think it's important for everyone to see the prism through which many Republicans (not all) view impeachment. For both Democratic and Republican Senators, the trial is about threats to democracy. We just see different threats.

Which is scary and bonkers, of course, and fits perfectly with Bill Barr's recent speeches on how Democrats are agents of the devil. (Check out this New Yorker article on that and more.) Dave Roberts might say they don't really believe any of that and it's just a front for will-to-power; I don't know.

Then there's yesterday's news that Senator Lindsey Graham is already calling for an immediate investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee into Joe Biden's actions on Ukraine during the Obama years (which have already been cleared, of course) and into the whistleblower (whose suspicions were all corroborated by other witnesses, so his/her original actions are pretty much irrelevant). And something about Iowa's Joni Ernst calling for these things, too.

And also the story in today's Washington Post that a Montana legislator (guess which party) says the Constitution allows for the jailing or shooting of Socialists. Plus all those armed, armored, masked men marching around state Capitol buildings lately in Virginia and Kentucky.

All of which leads me to ask: What (aside from unlivable levels of climate change) is our country coming to?