Pelosi's Attacker Is A Q-anon Nut, A Bigot, And A Trumper

It should come as no surprise that the man attacking Mr. Pelosi was a right-wing scumbag. Here's some of what the Los Angeles Times says about him:

In the months before police accused him of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Friday morning, David DePape had been drifting further into the world of far-right conspiracies, antisemitism and hate, according to a Times review of his online accounts.

In a personal blog that DePape maintained, posts include such topics as “Manipulation of History,” “Holohoax” and “It’s OK to be white.” He mentioned 4chan, a favorite message board of the far right. He posted videos about conspiracies involving COVID-19 vaccines and the war in Ukraine being a ploy for Jewish people to buy land.

DePape’s screeds included posts about QAnon, an unfounded theory that former President Trump is at war with a cabal of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring and control the world. In an Aug. 23 entry titled “Q,” DePape wrote: “Either Q is Trump himself or Q is the deepstate moles within Trumps inner circle.”. . .

DePape followed a number of conservative creators online, including Tim Pool, Glenn Beck, DailyWire+ and the Epoch Times. He also followed an account on YouTube called Black Pilled and reposted several of its videos on his blog. “Blackpilling” is internet slang for coming to believe supposedly unacceptable facts about society, and the reposted videos include accusations such as the FBI covering up child rape. . . .

When DePape was sounding off about QAnon, he posted: “Remember when the UK arrested parents for trying to rescue their children from being gang banged at pedo rape parties and f— LET the pedo’s CONTINUE their kiddie rape orgies,” he continued.

Another post referenced “pizzagate,” a bogus conspiracy theory that posited that children were trapped in a sexual abuse ring in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria run by Hillary Clinton and a chief aide.

“Pizza gate is connected to Epstien hahahahha,” a post from Aug. 23 read. “My friends would be like pizza gate was debunked their is NO such thing as elite pedophile sex rings and I’m like HELLO Epstein what planet are you on?”

In another, he called “equity” a leftist dog whistle “for the systematic oppression of white people” and “diversity” a “dog whistle for the genocide of the white race.” In others, he posted separate videos questioning the Holocaust and alleging Jewish bankers were responsible for Hitler’s rise to power. . . .

DePape posted videos to Facebook by MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell saying that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, according to reports.

He also linked to sites with claims about the deadliness of COVID-19 vaccines.

Trump Voters Are Committing Political Suicide

 

Traditionally in the United States, an off-year election has the party in power losing seats in Congress. This year may be an exception. If so, we can thank Donald Trump and his voters. They seem to be doing everything they can to make sure Republicans lose in 2022.

The following is part of an op-ed in The Washington Post by Megan McArdle:

The Democratic Party has no better friend at the moment than Donald Trump.

An overwhelming majority of voters pronounce themselves unsatisfied with the condition of the country: Gross domestic product has fallen, inflation has taken a significant chunk out of everyone’s paycheck, and President Biden’s approval rating is at 40 percent. Even offering extra credit for a very strong labor market, Republicans ought to be a lock to retake the Senate and the House in November’s midterms, with a solid shot at holding the trifecta come 2024.

Instead, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is warning that Republicans face an uphill battle in the Senate this year. And for that you can mostly thank Trump, who has been meddling in race after race, deterring strong candidates such as Larry Hogan and Chris Sununu, while elevating weak and inexperienced ones such as Blake Masters and Dr. Oz. The Trumpy base, which loves to see the GOP’s more moderate candidates getting what-for, is helping Trump to inadvertently elect Democrats. . . .

This is the tragedy of Republican politics right now. It looks increasingly clear that Trump is doing more damage to the Republican Party than to the “establishment” or the “deep state” or whoever it is that his most ardent supporters think they’re thwarting when they cast a vote for a Trump-endorsed candidate. . . .

Try for a moment to see how the world looks to a Trump voter, which is to say, someone who probably doesn’t have many friends who work in academia, or journalism, or high up in some expert bureaucracy like public health or the courts. They are aware that those folks have long viewed them with a mixture of bemused contempt and outright loathing, and they’re understandably a little peeved. They’re also pretty mad that Republican elected officials colluded with those elites to suppress consideration of popular restrictions on immigration and trade.

That Trump is a pariah among the professional class is a feature, not a bug. The collective freakout over Trump’s election and subsequent four years as president only strengthened this attraction, and because some of the freakouts were less than warranted — I’m looking at you, Russian collusion — they made it easier for Trump voters to dismiss the critics as hysterics.

That’s not to say that Trump wasn’t a danger. Many of his outrages fully warranted a freakout, most notably his baseless allegations of election fraud. But convincing someone that those allegations are nonsense requires either that they have an expert command of polling and election data, or else that they trust the pronouncements of mainstream institutional sources — which, if you are a Trump voter, means trusting people who have spent much of the last six years explaining that you voted for Trump because you are a) a bigot b) a fascist and/or c) too dumb to come in out of the rain. . . .

This is bad for the Republican Party, which is going to lose at least some elections it should have won in November, and bad for America, which needs two healthy political parties — and certainly doesn’t need another four years of Trump.

And it is also bad for those voters themselves, who are empowering the very liberal elites they thought they were electing Trump to fight.

Trump Voters Like Putin More Than Biden

This statistic, from the Economist/YouGov Poll, is shocking.  About 19% of Trump voters said they had a favorable opinion of Vladimir Putin, while only 9% said they had a favorable view of President Biden. They actually preferred a dictator who wants to destroy the United States over the U.S. President by a 10 point margin. 

Bookies Made A Ton Of Money Off Trump's Supporters

It's illegal to bet on elections here in the United States, but offshore and European bookies take bets on the U.S. election from American citizens.

And they made a killing off of this election. Those who bet on Biden to win made money, but that didn't hurt the bookies at all. That's because most of the bets came from Trump supporters, who were sure he would win.

Even crazier, a lot of those bets were made after it was known that Biden had won (but certification of the votes had yet to be done). Trump supporters believed he had actually won, and that the courts would overturn the election results.

Some bookies said it was like taking candy from a baby, and their profits were enormous. 

You can read more about this here.
 

Trump's Followers Are Members Of A Terrifying Cult

(Cartoon image is by Nikola Listes at cagle.com.)

Cult members are people who have abandoned rational thinking. For them, only their cult's leader speaks the truth. Everyone else is lying. That's what their leader tells them, and they believe it.

Doesn't this sound familiar? Isn't that a valid description of the people who follow Donald Trump? Haven't they abandoned rational political thought to buy into the lies of their leader? And finally, doesn't that make them members of a new cult -- the cult of Trump? I think so.

The inimitable John Pavlovitz (pictured) also thinks so. Here is some of what he had to say about this in his own excellent blog:

America is in a cultic crisis, and Trumpism is the cult. There is no other way to approach these days.

When you believe one man above Science, above our Intelligence agencies, above former CIA directors and retired generals and revered journalists—when you believe that one man above even your own eyes and ears—you are fully indoctrinated.
This hasn’t happened by accident, but by sickening design. Cult leaders prey upon emotionally vulnerable people, leveraging their loneliness, their disenfranchisement, their disconnection. They bombard their targets with a steady stream of misinformation, incendiary rhetoric, and chaotic prophecy—and into the swirling confusion created inside their heads, they come promising safety and security, while having no concern for them at all. They start a fire—and rush in with a bucket of water.

Donald Trump has mastered the art of emergency manufacturing and danger generation. We saw this during the near month-long Government shutdown. He convinced his followers that violent, drug-carrying immigrants were streaming across the border to duct tape and rape women, he then feigned courage by boldly and publicly vowing to protect them by shutting down the Government. He then did so, and after weeks of complete inactivity and not a single change, stood in the White House Rose Garden, claiming victory against a fictional adversary by stopping an unnecessary crisis that he alone created.

Every day he designs a false threat, steps in to the nonexistent battlefield, and declares himself victorious to a group of now emotionally dependent human beings, whose internal story and well-being depends on him winning. That’s the only way their world makes sense anymore, it is the only outcome they can conceive of.

People who’ve tried to rescue their loved ones from such inculcation will tell you how incredibly difficult it is to deprogram them after such repeated deception, such prolonged lying, such protracted fear. They will detail the excruciating efforts to reach parents and best friends and adult children, through the haze of their addiction to the connection they have come to feel with someone who is predatory toward them.And many will describe the long and bloody battles they’ve fought for the people they love—battles they  sometimes ultimately lost to the cult. . . .

No one willingly joins a cult. They are lured and tricked and coerced all the up to the precipice of emotional and intellectual surrender—and then they fall in. Once there, it is nearly impossible for them to leave voluntarily. They can’t see that they are fighting against their own self-interest by aligning with the one holding them hostage.

Bomber Arrested (& As Expected Was A Trump Supporter)

 (The photos in this post are from NBC News. The top image shows the decals on the bomber's van. At left is a prior booking photo of the bomber (56 year-old Cesar Sayoc, Jr.)

The MAGA-bomber has been arrested. It turns out to be Cesar Sayoc, Jr. of Florida. He has a prior criminal record, but that is not why he sent the bombs. He did that because he was a Trump supporter (note the decals on his van), and evidently, was trying to please his favorite demagogue -- Donald Trump. He is a registered Republican.

In the last couple of days, right-wingers have floated conspiracy theories saying the bombs were sent by Democrats (or leftists) to defame Trump. That has now been exposed as a ridiculous lie.

Trump himself spoke after the arrest. He said the bomber would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (even though he has nothing to do with how the bomber will be charged or prosecuted). He also called for unity among U.S. citizens -- completely ignoring his own efforts to divide the nation.

I wish I could say this is over, and Trump's critics are now safe -- but that is probably not the case. As long as Trump continues to demonize his political opponents, they will be in danger. Too many right-wing terrorists exist in this country -- people like Sayoc, who may try to please Trump with violent acts. And the next one may be more competent that this bomber was.

Trump has poisoned the politics in this country, and he has made the country a much more dangerous place.

(This graphic is from CNN.)

NOTE -- A 13th package has been found in Sacramento -- addressed to Senator Kamala Harris.

Trump Voters Have A Strange View Of Discrimination

The chart above shows results from a recent Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between October 14th and 16th of a national sample of 1500 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 points.

The poll asked Americans if they thought several different groups were discriminated against. The chart above shows the results according to Trump voters. Those voters thought the three groups most discriminated against were christians (64%), muslims (60%), and men (49%).

I'm a little surprised they included muslims, because muslims really are discriminated against in this country. But christians and men are not. The truth is that the United States is a christian-dominated patriarchy, where christians and men are the least discriminated against groups in the country.

The Trump voters seem to live in a world of their own, where facts don't matter. It is ridiculous that they believe christians and men are discriminated against more than Asians (27%), Blacks (38%), Hispanics (42%), LGBT community (41%), immigrants (46%), Jews (48%), and women (30%).

These results just highlight their racism, bigotry, and misogyny.

Trumpistas Prefer Bigotry/Authoritarianism Over Democracy

(Cartoon image is by David Horsey in the Los Angeles Times.)

After the 2016 election, the popular opinion among pundits was that Whites voted for Trump because they bought his economic argument -- that he would help American workers. I don't believe that. Trump and the elected Republicans have never been interested in making things better for workers. As their tax plan showed, they are only interested in helping the rich.

So why did too many working-class Whites vote for Trump? They voted for him because he reflected their own racial and religious bigotry. They will claim they love democracy, but the democracy they are talking about is a democracy for Whites (and christians). They really don't want others to be able to participate in their own sick version of "democracy". And they are perfectly willing to accept an authoritarian government to achieve that.

For the trumpistas, Trump's phrase "Make America Great Again" is just code for "Make America White Again" -- and they are not subtle in expressing that desire.

Consider this excellent article by Noah Berlatsky at NBC News (part of which I post below):

Many political observers are concerned that increasing political polarization on left and right makes compromise impossible, and leads to the destruction of democratic norms and institutions.

A new study, however, suggests that the main threat to our democracy may not be the hardening of political ideology, but rather the hardening of one particular political ideology. Political scientists Steven V. Miller of Clemson and Nicholas T. Davis of Texas A&M have released a working paper titled "White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy." Their study finds a correlation between white American's intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule. In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy.

Miller and Davis used information from the World Values Survey, a research project organized by a worldwide network of social scientists which polls individuals in numerous countries on a wide range of beliefs and values. Based on surveys from the United States, the authors found that white people who did not want to have immigrants or people of different races living next door to them were more likely to be supportive of authoritarianism. For instance, people who said they did not want to live next door to immigrants or to people of another race were more supportive of the idea of military rule, or of a strongman-type leader who could ignore legislatures and election results.

The World Values Survey data used is from the period 1995 to 2011 — well before Donald Trump's 2016 run for president. It suggests, though, that Trump's bigotry and his authoritarianism are not separate problems, but are intertwined. When Trump calls Mexicans "rapists," and when he praises authoritarian leaders, he is appealing to the same voters. . . .

Trump's rise is often presented as a major break with the past, and as a repudiation of American values and democratic commitments. But in an email, Miller pointed out that white intolerance has long served as an excuse for, and a spark for, authoritarian measures.

"People are fond of the Framers’ grand vision of liberty and equality for all," Miller says, "but the beauty of the Federalist papers can’t paper over the real measures of exclusion that were baked into their understanding of a limited franchise."

Black people, Asians, Native Americans and women were prevented from voting for significant stretches of American history. America's tradition of democracy (for some) exists alongside a tradition of authoritarianism (for some). The survey data doesn't show people rejecting American traditions, then, Miller says, so much as it shows "a preference for the sort of white-ethnocentrism that imbued much of the functional form of democracy for the better part of two centuries."

The Founders supported democracy as long as it was restricted to white male property holders. Today, our understanding of democracy is more expansive — at least in theory.

In practice, the GOP has increasingly been embracing a politics of white resentment tied to disenfranchisement. "Since Richard Nixon's ‘Southern Strategy,’ the GOP has pigeon-holed itself as, in large part, an aggrieved white people's party," Miller told me. . . .

"The GOP has dug itself into such a hole on this that the most practical effort to stave off these impending losses is to disenfranchise the votes of the same ethnic/racial outgroups against whom GOP messaging has been stoking animosity," Miller tells me. A party built on demonizing and attacking marginalized people is a party that will have to disenfranchise those same people if it is to survive.

Blaming authoritarianism on partisanship suggests that both sides are equally to blame for the erosion of democratic norms. But greater commitment to abortion rights and free healthcare in the Democratic party isn't a threat to the foundations of democracy. The growing concentration of intolerant white voters in the GOP, on the other hand, has created a party which appears less and less committed to the democratic project. When faced with a choice between bigotry and democracy, too many Americans are embracing the first while abandoning the second.

"Social intolerance isn't just leading to GOP support as we know it and see it now," Miller says. "It's leading to preferences in favor of the kind of candidate the GOP ultimately nominated and supported for president." In embracing the politics of white identity, then, the GOP made a Trump possible — and is likely to make more Trump-like candidates successful in the future.

Republicans And Trump Voters Still Believe The "Birther" Lie

This is both amazing and shocking to me. And it shows just how far the Republican Party has moved from reality. We have seen President Obama's birth certificate (both short and long forms), read the newspaper announcement of his birth, and had Hawaii officials assure us that he was born in their state. His American birth (and citizenship) has been proven beyond doubt.

But many Republicans still prefer to believe the "birther" lies that claim he was born in Kenya. That's the belief of 51% of Republicans -- and of 57% of Trump voters. Reality and facts mean nothing to these people. They believe what they want to believe.

The chart above was made from a recent Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between December 3rd and 5th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults, with a margin of error of 3.4 points.

Trumpistas Have An Amazing Ability To Deny Reality

It is beyond doubt that Russia invented fake news stories to help Donald Trump win the election. Social media sites have all admitted they were used in this way -- and are currently being grilled by Congress about it. In addition, Congress applied new sanctions against Russia for this behavior.

But if there's anything Trump voters are good at -- it's denying reality (no matter how much evidence is revealed). About 78% of Trump voters don't believe the Russians created and spread fake stories to help Trump (38% say it definitely didn't happen and 40% say it probably didn't happen). Only a tiny 22% say it probably (20%) or definitely (2%) happened.

This chart shows results from a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between October 29th and 31st of a random national sample of 1,500 adults (including 497 Trump voters), with a 3 point margin of error.