Americans have flirted with fascist ideology on and off, especially in the early 20th century--then in reaction to a strong progressive streak that dominated American culture. The opposition to democracy, nationalism, anti-immigrant demagoguery, the reliance on lies and propaganda, and authoritarianism are its most persistent features.
More and more the Trump influenced Republican Party is using lying as a tactic. Indeed, they banished Liz Cheney from her leadership position, the sole reason being, she told the truth about the 2020 election and the Trump-led Jan. 6 insurrection against our government.
Allow me to provide some examples.
First, we have two whoppers from the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. As he was leading the ouster of Cheney for telling the truth, McCarthy declared,
"And unlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate."
With the exception of the party's leader, Donald Trump, who won't let us forget the election he lost, and 60% of Republicans who think the election was stolen, according to a recent poll, McCarthy said on Wednesday,
“I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the president’s election.”
Not to be outdone, Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) told this outrageous fabrication. “Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos, pictures, you know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) questioned whether those who invaded our capitol were Trump supporters. “I don’t know who did they poll to say that they were Trump supporters,” adding that the attack was premeditated and so could not have been incited by Trump.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on
Dec. 19, just one of several of his tweets promoting the big day. “Be there, will be wild!”
Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) accused the Justice Department of harassing the peaceful patriots who ransacked our capitol. “Outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens. The FBI is fishing through homes of veterans and citizens with no criminal records and restricting the liberties of individuals that have never been accused of a crime.”
475 people have been "accused of a crime” in the Capitol insurrection so far.
Why are Republican lawmakers using disinformation as a tactic?
It's simple. Intelligence challenged, uninformed grass-roots Republicans -- also known as Trump's cult -- will believe every word of it. Because they avoid reality, they don't know any better.
In Trump's world, which has been adopted by the GOP leadership, the more outrageous the lie, the better.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...c03342-b351-11eb-a980-a60af976ed44_story.html aided me in this report.