The next insurrection:

[Themis]

It is not that questioning the election results per se is a threat to democracy. But doing so as blatantly and maliciously dishonestly as Trump and his sycophantic followers (like you) persist in doing is a very real and even terrifying threat to our democracy. But, then, you have already indicated many times (at least implicitly) that you have almost zero respect for democracy, unless it includes rejecting out of hand honest expression of views other than your own. Isn't that right?

Trump wasn't questioning the results. He knew he had lost. Even his own people would inform him of that. He was completely lying to people that he had won the election. Now this is really bad, but what crosses the line on being a traitor was his attempts to illegally overthrow the election. What saved democracy was enough people, some who are republicans, who said no to his request to overturn the election.

[Gunnar]

Trump wasn't questioning the results. He knew he had lost. Even his own people would inform him of that. He was completely lying to people that he had won the election. Now this is really bad, but what crosses the line on being a traitor was his attempts to illegally overthrow the election.

Trump questioning the results and knowing that he had lost are not mutually exclusive propositions. He is certainly questioning the results. Knowing that he lost and still questioning the results would be precisely what makes it so despicable and dishonest. I don't think we can entirely rule out the possibility that he has actually convinced himself, though, that he really didn't lose the election.

More importantly, though, is that he doesn't really give a damn whether or not he actually lost the election. He wants to somehow overturn it anyway by any means necessary to achieve that end, even if innocent people (including some of his loyal, deluded supporters) get hurt or killed in the process.

What saved democracy was enough people, some who are republicans, who said no to his request to overturn the election.

Certainly!

[Themis]

I don't think we can entirely rule out the possibility that he has actually convinced himself, though, that he really didn't lose the election.

I would agree. He certainly would have been told by his own people that he lost the election, but his extreme narcissus does not allow him to accept that he lost. His whole life is about seeing himself as always winning, as the smartest in every room, the best at everything. He spends most of his time at all his events talking about himself and how great he is. All the other president's could at least see themselves with some accuracy of where they fit in the universe. Most people can, but narcissists cannot. What astonishes me is the number of people dumb enough not to see Trump as he really is and think he is even part of what thinks of himself. It shows the dangers of how people can be dumb enough to give their freedom away to these cult personalities.

[Gunnar]

Republicans want "18 more months of chaos" — followed by the end of democracy

Today's Republican Party is a fascist, criminal, sociopathic, anti-democratic, white supremacist, theocratic, plutocratic and cultlike organization. Its leaders (and followers) have repeatedly and publicly shown the world that they embrace such values and behavior.

Today's Republican leaders are hardly even trying to hide that fact!

Today's Republican Party is ultimately incapable of being a partner in responsible governance. It rejects basic principles of democracy and compromise towards a shared goal of serving the public good. Instead, the right-wing movement's primary goals are chaos, obstruction and destruction, with the aim of delegitimizing the very idea of democracy itself — except as a meaningless term used to describe one-party Republican rule.

Republican leaders, officials and other spokespeople know this is the strategy and have repeatedly admitted to it. Leaked video footage of Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, saying precisely that is only the latest example. As reported by Common Dreams:

Newly leaked video footage of a recent event hosted by the right-wing group Patriot Voices shows Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas openly admitting that his party wants "18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done" as President Joe Biden, a bipartisan group of senators, and congressional Democrats work to pass climate and infrastructure legislation.

"Honestly, right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022," Roy says in the clip, referring to the month after that year's midterm elections. Republicans need to flip just a handful of seats to take back the House and Senate.

"I don't vote for anything in the House of Representatives right now," Roy says in response to an audience member's question about the sweeping infrastructure and safety-net package that Democrats are planning to pass unilaterally alongside a White House-backed bipartisan deal.

Unless Democrats fully realize what Republicans are trying to do and have been trying to do for decades, and act more aggressively to counter it, our democracy hangs precariously in the balance. It may already be too late to save it if the last remaining Democrat hold outs against abolishing the filibuster can't be convinced of the folly of their continuing opposition.

Next year's congressional midterms and the 2024 presidential election will be two of the most important elections in American history. Democracy is literally on the ballot. The Republicans and their allies and foot soldiers are following through on an aggressive plan to end multiracial, majoritarian democracy by nullifying the people's will, and have made clear they are willing to endorse right-wing terrorism and political violence to win and hold power.

What will it take for the Democratic Party, its leaders, the press and the American people to take the Republican Party's existentially dangerous behavior more seriously? Or is it already too late to stop America's accelerating descent into neofascism and a "whites only" pseudo-democracy?

[Gunnar]

I don't think we can entirely rule out the possibility that he has actually convinced himself, though, that he really didn't lose the election.

I would agree. He certainly would have been told by his own people that he lost the election, but his extreme narcissus does not allow him to accept that he lost. His whole life is about seeing himself as always winning, as the smartest in every room, the best at everything. He spends most of his time at all his events talking about himself and how great he is. All the other president's could at least see themselves with some accuracy of where they fit in the universe. Most people can, but narcissists cannot. What astonishes me is the number of people dumb enough not to see Trump as he really is and think he is even part of what thinks of himself. It shows the dangers of how people can be dumb enough to give their freedom away to these cult personalities.

Thanks. We are now in full agreement on this (and probably always really were).

[Gunnar]

Some of the strongest supporters of Donald Trump are Evangelical Christians, despite the fact that he has a history of violating Christ's noblest and most important ideals and values to which Evangelicals pay lip service. A pastor and his son from Melbourne Florida were even involved in the Jan 6 insurrection.

A father and his son, both pastors at a Melbourne church as well as a congregant who provided evidence against them were all arrested Thursday in connection with the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to federal court filings.

Evangelicals Unmasked
One of the commentators to the video aptly equated today's Evangelicals to the Pharisees which Christ so strongly condemned in his own day.

[Atlanticmike]

I think you guys are missing the point. Trump was voted in because he is a narcissist, asshole and a prick. And the people who voted him in love him for it. He wasn't sent to Washington to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, he was sent there because he has the personality that can handle an onslaught of negative media coverage and not feel intimidated when the intolerant progressive shithead's start spewing there hatred. Progressives are like the school yard bully that grows bolder everytime he picks a victim to intimidate and know one calls him on it. Trump is the guy who will stand up and say, "Screw you school yard bully!!" And until the Republicans realize this, or find someone else who can withstand the progressives internal hatred for life, they'll be the cowards who turn away from the bully so they don't have to deal with a serious situation.

How did I do at getting my feet wet on a new forum?

[Moksha]

Seems like most fascists were still hiding under "smokey" encrusted rocks before Trump unearthed them. Then the majority of Republicans latched on to a new train ride to Buchenwald.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...] he was sent there because he has the personality that can handle an onslaught of negative media coverage [...]

Lol.

[ajax18]

Seems like most fascists were still hiding under "smokey" encrusted rocks before Trump unearthed them. Then the majority of Republicans latched on to a new train ride to Buchenwald.

Well you've weaponized the FBI against Tucker Carlsen by leaking his emails to the mainstream media. But you still haven't managed to get his show cancelled. I think it's pretty clear that in the US, conservative political opinion is criminal and should be censored. Any who admit to it should be jailed, just as the communists in the former Soviet Union used to do.