It has been six months since the insurrectionists tried to overthrow the American electoral system by storming the Capitol. I was at home, scrolling through Twitter where I saw reports that an unruly mob had gathered outside the Capitol and was trying to force its way in. I did something I rarely do: turned on cable news. The word "surreal" gets bandied about too much, but there is really no other word to describe what we saw that day.
I never felt that this band of misfits would seriously overturn electoral democracy. Even as I watched it, I wasn't worried that somehow this would be the end of America. If anything, I was worried - and remain worried - that 1/6 was not the end of something but the beginning of a new phase in the fundamental brokenness of Rightist politics in America. The demented ramblings of Marjorie Traitor Greene and Paul Gosar have become the rallying cry of the perpetually aggrieved twice-impeached Florida Man and have now become the litmus test for any Republican aspiring to hold office.
On election day, I still felt that Trump was going to lose. It was playing out exactly the way prognosticators had said: Trump would hold early leads and then early vote totals would swing it towards Biden. However, the tragedy of election day was that it wasn't a crushing landslide. A defeat so humiliating and total that Trumpism would be vanquished as surely as the man himself was. Instead, we are headed for at least a few more years of fighting against an anti-democratic movement within one of our two major political parties.
And yet, Cult 45 continues to worship this Golden-plated Calf....
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