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Let's dive into how some Republicans are trying to get people to wear masks and take the pandemic seriously after their attacks on science, education, and experts created a perfect storm for mass tragedy.
Here's what I learned writing AMERICAN RULE.
1/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/american-rule-by-jared-yates-sexton/
Here's what I learned writing AMERICAN RULE.
1/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611439/american-rule-by-jared-yates-sexton/
First things first, the horror that Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Lamar Alexander are experiencing is a horror of their own making.
The GOP has spent so much time and so much money attacking science and education, all of it leading here.
2/ https://www.themuckrake.com/main/end-stop
The GOP has spent so much time and so much money attacking science and education, all of it leading here.
2/ https://www.themuckrake.com/main/end-stop
We could NEVER have ended up with this mass tragedy and violent opposition to simple science and common sense unless the Republican Party weaponized paranoia and distrust in science, education, and experts.
Never.
This all is on them. Period.
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Never.
This all is on them. Period.
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It is...something watching Alexander and McConnell trying to rein in the absolute horror and damage they've done after years and years and years of attacking experts, science, and education.
The responsibility for this tragedy is theirs and the Republican Party's.
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The responsibility for this tragedy is theirs and the Republican Party's.
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It is telling that "old guard" Republicans are the ones asking supporters to believe the pandemic is real and wear masks.
They birthed this monstrous movement for purposes of consolidating power, but they never actually believed their own propaganda.
It was a game.
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They birthed this monstrous movement for purposes of consolidating power, but they never actually believed their own propaganda.
It was a game.
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What "old guard" Republicans are watching, with new Republicans peddling conspiracy theories and Fox News just going completely off the rails is the consequence of their decades of weaponized paranoia, misinformation, and attacks on institutions meant to help society.
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To begin this story, we have to go back to the 1950's, when colleges were conservative and academics worked hand-in-hand with Republicans to experiment on students, build weapons for the Cold War, and generally exist as a weaponized arm for American pursuit of power.
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Of course, in the 1960's there was a major change on college campuses. The environment grew more liberal and questioned the status quo.
It's no coincidence that this coincided with Republican opposition to higher education and their attempts to discredit education.
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It's no coincidence that this coincided with Republican opposition to higher education and their attempts to discredit education.
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As soon as campuses became more liberal and opposed power, they were considered enemies and targeted by conservatives.
It was a drastic, massive change, and in that struggle it demonized education and enlightened opinion, setting off decades worth of battles.
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It was a drastic, massive change, and in that struggle it demonized education and enlightened opinion, setting off decades worth of battles.
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Perhaps no one embodied the battle between the GOP and education more than Ronald Reagan, who won the California governorship by promising to beat down protesters and tame them.
Reagan's claim to fame was brutalizing students and talking down to academics.
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Reagan's claim to fame was brutalizing students and talking down to academics.
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We have to note, before we move on, that politics was so different in the 1970's that fascist Richard Nixon actually pushed environmental protection and considered healthcare a problem.
But a fracture was looming.
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But a fracture was looming.
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Like so many of our current problems, this one began in the 1990's with Bill Clinton, who won the presidency by campaigning on a "Reaganism With a Human Face," which was a more compassionate conservatism.
His plan to reform healthcare was part of this pursuit.
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His plan to reform healthcare was part of this pursuit.
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Clinton's plan to reform healthcare was fairly moderate and non-threatening. Republicans were on board and even charmed by Hillary Clinton from the onset.
It was a moment that could have led to consensus, but the GOP recognized passage could hurt them politically.
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It was a moment that could have led to consensus, but the GOP recognized passage could hurt them politically.
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Think-tanks and strategists determined that Clinton passing healthcare reform could hurt the GOP for years to come. They might lose seats. He might get reelected.
They conceded healthcare was a problem, but decided it was a better strategy to pretend it wasn't.
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They conceded healthcare was a problem, but decided it was a better strategy to pretend it wasn't.
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Republicans like Bob Dole, who knew full and well healthcare was broken, followed the strategy memos and told the American people there was no healthcare crisis.
They said Clinton was making it all up as a massive power play to takeover the country.
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They said Clinton was making it all up as a massive power play to takeover the country.
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The GOP narrative that Clinton was lying about healthcare gave credence to Right Wing bloviators like Rush Limbaugh, who had no responsibility to tell the truth and profited off fearmongering.
The message became that Clinton was a tyrant who threatened American lives.
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The message became that Clinton was a tyrant who threatened American lives.
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Of course, Newt Gingrich was one of the architects of this strategy. He blended the traditional Republicans with Limbaugh's fearmongering, going out of his way to discredit any expert who would admit healthcare was a problem and needed reform.
He seized the moment.
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He seized the moment.
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The Republican strategy mutated, it started telling a story of paranoia, painting an America under attack by liberal traitors, liberal elites, and experts who lied.
They told Americans the GOP was the only thing standing between them and endless slaughter.
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They told Americans the GOP was the only thing standing between them and endless slaughter.
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This attack on experts and science continued for years, especially as the Democratic Party embraced climate change as a major concern.
Again, like healthcare, the GOP simply denied the science they knew was real in order to turn it into a political cudgel.
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Again, like healthcare, the GOP simply denied the science they knew was real in order to turn it into a political cudgel.
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They harangued scientists, claimed they were corrupt, all the while crafting a story that all this concern and fear over climate change was a ruse to hide Democratic and liberal pursuit of power.
All the while, the GOP's paranoid alternate reality grew stronger and stronger
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All the while, the GOP's paranoid alternate reality grew stronger and stronger
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Republicans and the energy corporations they represented knew for decades that climate change was real.
Their own studies proved it, but they determined it was better for profit and power to deny it and continue claiming scientists were in on a massive conspiracy.
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Their own studies proved it, but they determined it was better for profit and power to deny it and continue claiming scientists were in on a massive conspiracy.
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Energy giants like Exxon held one meeting after another where the science was proof of a coming catastrophic disaster, but decided it was necessary for profit and power to continue lying about it until the last possible second.
Sadly, they damned us to so much suffering.
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Sadly, they damned us to so much suffering.
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All of this took an unbelievable toll.
Science, education, and experts were demonized, turned into conspirators and murderers and liars by the GOP.
It was a ruse for power, and when we reached the pandemic there was no time to pump the brakes or reverse course.
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Science, education, and experts were demonized, turned into conspirators and murderers and liars by the GOP.
It was a ruse for power, and when we reached the pandemic there was no time to pump the brakes or reverse course.
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We've reached a point where the GOP is so dedicated to attacking science, education, and experts that they can't even protect themselves or their voters. Their only move remaining is to dive even deeper while people die.
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https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1278155365507612674/pu/vid/1280x720/uIj134enPkcAxj7t.mp4?tag=10
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https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1278155365507612674/pu/vid/1280x720/uIj134enPkcAxj7t.mp4?tag=10
Of course, this is where Trump comes in. He's unburdened by the conscience that some of these Republicans have.
He has no idea what's true, what's false, and has no qualms in demonizing science, education, or experts.
After all, authoritarians hate these things naturally.
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He has no idea what's true, what's false, and has no qualms in demonizing science, education, or experts.
After all, authoritarians hate these things naturally.
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It is...sad and fateful poetry that when the Republican war on science, education, and experts comes to a tragic fruition, when a massive, deadly pandemic hits, that Trump, a man who personifies these things, is in charge.
It is just a total, maddening tragedy.
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It is just a total, maddening tragedy.
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These protests, these people who refuse to quarantine or wear a mask, these people who live in an alternate reality, are the inhabitants of a world created by the Republican Party in order to win elections and consolidate power.
This is how we got here.
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This is how we got here.
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The war on science, education, and experts created an environment where Americans truly believe the lie Republicans have told them
That they are in danger of mass slaughter by traitors and agents of an evil conspiracy
It isn't what the GOP predicted, but it's what they got
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That they are in danger of mass slaughter by traitors and agents of an evil conspiracy
It isn't what the GOP predicted, but it's what they got
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In this reality the GOP created for electoral success, their base believes they are the victims of conspiracies by the educated, by science, and by experts.
They will fight them as if they are fighting an occupying, murderous force.
It's the logical conclusion of all this.
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They will fight them as if they are fighting an occupying, murderous force.
It's the logical conclusion of all this.
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Even as senior members of the GOP who created this crisis try and rein it in, the alternate reality they created has spread and convinced Americans they are under attack by a pandemic that was either created as a weapon or simply doesn't exist.
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The only thing these people can be sure of is the political reality the GOP sought to create in the first place: The Republican Party is only "protector" available against liberals and Democrats who seek to murder them and their children.
31/ https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-you-will-need-protector-protector-must-be-republican-party
31/ https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-you-will-need-protector-protector-must-be-republican-party
McConnell and Alexander can try and talk their voters into wearing masks, into believing the pandemic is real, all they want.
The damage is done. In the pursuit of power, they turned the Republican Party into a fascistic movement totally divorced and removed from reality.
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The damage is done. In the pursuit of power, they turned the Republican Party into a fascistic movement totally divorced and removed from reality.
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The war on science, education, and experts is going to kill so many Americans.
It already has.
And it's created a nation that not only questions reality, but wars against it.
They have inspired unbelievable violence and instability and all but ransomed off our future.
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It already has.
And it's created a nation that not only questions reality, but wars against it.
They have inspired unbelievable violence and instability and all but ransomed off our future.
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No conversation about the pandemic is complete without examining how the GOP destroyed reality in order to win elections.
Every day we suffer, every day we die, every day that we watch this disaster unfold is another day we deal with the consequences of the GOP's actions.
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Every day we suffer, every day we die, every day that we watch this disaster unfold is another day we deal with the consequences of the GOP's actions.
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