Listening to the reaction of the Right Wing Media Cult, I've come to realize that only one thing will heal our nation:
Jail time for Donald John Trump.
There are a string of lawsuits facing Trump once he leaves office, willingly or not. Robert Mueller has already testified that if Trump weren't President, that he could be charged with obstruction. And all that is before we get to Trump's violation of the Hatch Act, his refusal to fully separate himself of his private holdings, and his ongoing lawsuits over his tax returns.
Meanwhile, Trumpists are refusing to face reality that his guy lost; that there are simply, plainly, more people that hate Trump than love him.
But they've been in denial about him for five years. Why start accepting reality now?
Last Friday night, Sean Hannity cited numerous examples of "observers" being denied access to the vote count, and concluded from this that there has been massive voter fraud going on. Now, it is axiomatic that when the vote-counting authorities have been pre-determined, any additional "observers," no matter how official-seeming, are outside their official authority, and allowing them in to "observe" would be hugely disruptive. So naturally, Hannity has loads of footage of such people getting turned away. This means such "observers" have zero evidence of voter fraud, but that doesn't stop Hannity. Because, he says, not being able to see the process means that there must be fraud going on, right?
It's an old fallacy. I can't see into the box, therefore the box MUST contain X. Because why else would I be denied access to see inside of it?
Obviously there are space aliens inside Area 51. Otherwise why won't the Army let us in?
Meanwhile, Mark Belling is his usual, lying self on Thursday's afternoon show:
"What, you think Democrats will stop cheating? I mean even if he could magically do the thi... I just do not see a scenario where - if he needs Pennsylvania, they'll give him Pennsylvania. In other words, if Trump loses Arizona and he loses North Carolina it's possible they won't screw him on Pennsylvania. But if Pennsylvania is needed by Biden I just think that they'll... they're going to do it. They will literally... They'll commit the crimes right in front of everybody because they don't care what's going to happen. This is the same city that the Black Panthers in '08 stood at the election doors with guns stopping republicans from voting! And not one of them went to jail over that! So why wouldn't they... I jus... I - I just don't know how you stop the cheating..."
Belling is referring to one incident in November of 2008 where only two members of the New Black Panther party stood outside of only one polling station in Philadelphia. One of the two men was armed, but with a billy club, not a gun. The two men shouted racial slurs at whites going in to vote, but no one was prevented from entering. After a lengthy court hearing in 2010, the charges were dismissed. But the fact that Belling mis-remembers the whole story is telling. In the game of conservative talk-radio telephone, the incident became ALL the Black Panthers, they were all armed, and with guns, not one dude with a club.
And even THAT misses the point! Because Belling thinks that an incident in 2008 has any bearing on what's going on in Philadelphia TODAY!
This is known as presumption of guilt based on prior record, and every courtroom knows it's a logical fallacy.
Media Matters for America has reported on how the negative feedback loop between Lame-Duck President Trump and Fox News is leading to more and more claims of fraud - without evidence.
The only "evidence" they have is that they were not allowed to go in and disrupt the process.
In the coming weeks and months, there will be numerous lawsuits and recounts. They will fail. Let them. It will provide ample evidence that their claims of voter fraud are wrong.
If it looks like a lame duck, and it waddles like a lame duck, and it quacks like a lame duck, it's probably a lame duck.
But even that won't stop them. The underlying delusions that made Donald Trump president in the first place will still be there, with institutional support from the Right Wing Media Cult.
The only way to break that, at least a little bit, is for people to see Donald Trump in an orange jump suit.
Hell, it's his color, anyway.
No, it won't end the delusions overnight. It won't even appear to slow them down, at first. But sooner or later, people will say, "Hey, all this time these guys, Limbaugh, Hannity, Belling and Fox News, they were all arguing in defense of Donald Trump, and look what a crook HE turned out to be? Why do these clowns still have a job?"
And then, finally, it will fall.
If Trump manages to stay out of jail, which I doubt, he will likely be the Republican candidate in 2024, and once again, we will have to stomp this down, disbelieve the polls, and try to win this thing by three touchdowns instead of the two we tried to win by during this year's election.
And after two failed elections in a row, Trumpism will finally be dead.
But it will be so very much easier if Trump goes to jail now.
The Republican Party needs a hard reset. Turn the whole party off, fire everybody, then turn it back on again and start fresh.
But that, of course, won't happen.
Seeing Trump in jail is the next best thing. And it will bring at least some Republicans back to sanity.
Eric
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