Time For America To Choose: Violent Extremism Or Democracy
Paul Pelosi was just another victim of an increasingly militant Republican Party.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – I was thinking about writing an Elon Musk piece this week, but I feel like I’ve said everything I need to say about that ungainly berzerker Monopoly man via Twitter and on my podcast. Cutting to the chase: I’m not leaving Twitter and intend to cover its imminent demise. Nor will I pay Elon to keep my verified status – a status I applied for with government documents to prove I am who I am. I’ll lose that status, but I’ll be able to sleep at night. Meantime, the bluecheck will be a Scarlet Letter on the chests of anyone who chooses to pay a billionaire to provide content… for that billionaire. Fuck that guy.
Rather, in the aftermath of the assault on Paul Pelosi, I’d like to rewind to a thing I do occasionally, which is to prove that Republicans actively influence their disciples to engage in politically-motivated violence.
To be clear, none of what you’re about to watch can be found on the Democratic side. I’ve been following electoral politics since the 1980s and I’ve never seen a Democratic campaign ad or video in which the candidate or elected official has shot at, blew up, or pretended to murder a Republican opponent. Conversely, there are countless examples of Donald Trump and his copycats telling their fanboys to “knock the crap” out of Democrats, especially just prior to the January 6th invasion and occupation of Congress when Trump ordered his citizen militias to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
Watch this report from ABC News:
But Trump is just one of many Republican leaders, stretching back years, who can’t stop telling his cult members to shoot, blow up, and murder Democrats. So, naturally many of them believe it’s okay to do that – after all, the former president and other Republican A-listers said it’s okay or led by example by showing their people how to do it.
1) The most germane example related to the Pelosi attack is a video by Republican primary candidate Jim Lamon, earlier this year, in which he shoots the Democratic Party leadership, including Nancy Pelosi:
2) Here’s Republican Will Brooke shooting the Affordable Care Act back in 2014:
3) Senator Rand Paul using an AR-15 to shoot the tax code:
4) Missouri Republican Eric Greitens shooting the “Democrat (sic) machine” and more:
5) Montana Republican Rob Quist shooting his opponent’s campaign ad:
6) Majorie Taylor Greene shooting socialism:
7) Nevada Republican Michele Fiore shooting critical race theory, vaccine mandates, and more:
Sadly, millions of stupids will vote for these eliminationist chaos agents because gas prices are three dollars per gallon. If you happen to know anyone who fits that description – swing voters who don’t know anything about anything – please share the above videos with them, and ask whether this is the kind of democracy they want: democracy under threat of assassination, which isn’t democracy at all. And if they say something about the patriotic violence of the American Revolution, remind them that there was no democracy in 1776, given how the colonies lacked representation in Parliament.
We have one more chance to marginalize these people. If we fail, they’ll become more empowered, more violent, more aggrieved and, yes, they will seek to punish everyone who’s not them, whether by legislation or violence or both. Gas prices and inflation will return to normal sooner than we think. Why? Because they always do. But violent idiocracy won’t end without considerable suffering. It’s either the Democrats or it’s the end of the republic as we know it.
Vote wisely.
Read an excerpt from the latest for Banter Members:
Elon Musk Is Kanye West Is Elon Musk
Welcome to the new America, where two narcissistic billionaires control what we talk about, and how.
by Ben Cohen
The Great Tech Genius Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has not been a smooth one. The social media platform was almost immediately overrun by right wing trolls, even after Musk tweeted out a direct statement to advertisers assuring them the platform wouldn’t become a “free-for-all hellscape”.
Musk then made good on his promise by tweeting out a revolting right wing conspiracy theory about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi and firing the entire Twitter board.
As someone who uses Twitter regularly, I can confirm that the social media platform is not, as Musk promised advertisers, “warm and welcoming to all”. It is, as I predicted several months ago, a shit show filled with racists, bigots and conspiracy theorists. My feed is jammed full of people spreading all sorts of idiotic misinformation, advertisers are running for the hills, and prominent voices on the platform are leaving in droves.
The Right wing twitter universe has been emboldened by their anti-woke, free speech maxi billionaire superhero sticking it to the Libs, and declared Twitter a woke-free zone, liberated from the censorship of effete San Francisco Democrats.
Here is a small sample of what my current Twitter feed now looks like (and I don’t follow any of these accounts):
“Gas prices and inflation will return to normal sooner than we think. Why? Because they always do.”
And because they aren’t at oh-it’s-doomsday levels that the press pushes in their narrative.