From: slider@anashram.com

(CNN)While Donald Trump has held several rallies since the January 6
Capitol insurrection, his rally in Iowa Saturday was the most alarming by
far.

At Trump's past post-presidency events, you wouldn't find the state's
leading GOP officials attending en masse. In fact, at a rally in Georgia
last month, Trump railed against the state's Republican leaders for
refusing to assist him in illegally overturning the 2020 election. Trump
even told the crowd he'd prefer potential Democratic challenger Stacey
Abrams as governor over his fellow Republican who's currently in office, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

Saturday's rally in Iowa, though, was different. This one was attended by longtime Iowa US Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson, and other mainstream
Republican officials. Some of these very same people, who just nine months
ago were slamming Trump for his role in the Capitol riots, were now only
too happy to be seen supporting him. This is politics at its worst -- and
at its most dangerous for our democracy.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/10/opinions/trump-iowa-rally-gop-embrace-obeidallah/index.html

The most hypocritical of the bunch is Sen. Grassley, who on January 6 was escorted by his security detail to a secure location to protect him from
the pro-Trump mob that had laid siege on the Capitol. Grassley, who voted
to certify the 2020 election, made a veiled reference to Trump in his statement, noting that the lawsuits filed after the election had failed
and that "politicians in Washington should not second guess the courts
once they have ruled."

In February, however, after Trump's impeachment trial for allegedly
inciting the January 6 insurrection (allegations which Trump has denied), Grassley was even more direct with his criticism. He said in a statement
that "President Trump continued to argue that the election had been stolen
even though the courts didn't back up his claims," and "belittled and
harassed elected officials across the country to get his way." Grassley
added that Trump "encouraged his own, loyal vice president, Mike Pence, to
take extraordinary and unconstitutional actions during the Electoral
College count."

Grassley continued bluntly: "There's no doubt in my mind that President
Trump's language was extreme, aggressive, and irresponsible," sharing his
view that all involved in the attack -- including Trump -- "must take responsibility for their destructive actions that day."

Flash forward to Saturday, and there was Grassley beaming as Trump offered
a "complete and total endorsement for re-election" for the 88-year-old
Senator. Grassley responded, "If I didn't accept the endorsement of a
person that's got 91 percent of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn't
be too smart."

To Grassley, it was "smart" to accept the endorsement of the man who spent Saturday's rally spouting the same falsehoods that led to the January 6 violence that caused Grassley to hide in fear. Trump's litany of dangerous election lies at his Iowa rally ranged from irresponsible claims he won Wisconsin "by a lot" in 2020, to lying that the results of the recently released Arizona audit support his false claim that he had actually won
that state. He even declared that, "First of all, [Biden] didn't get
elected, OK?" The crowd responded to Trump's buffet of lies by chanting,
"Trump won! Trump won!"

But Grassley wasn't alone in his duplicity. Also attending the rally was
GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, who had released a statement on January 13 about
the Capitol attack, saying, "I believe the President bears responsibility,
and that is why I urged him personally to call off those who were
violently storming the Capitol last week." Hinson added, "I wish he had
spoken up sooner, but he did not."

Yet her view of Trump's role in the January 6 act of domestic terrorism,
as the FBI has classified it, did not stop Hinson from attending
Saturday's rally. Nor did the fact that, just days earlier, the Senate had released a 400-page report titled "Subverting Justice," about Trump's
efforts to utilize the Department of Justice to help him illegally
overturn the 2020 election. In fact, none of Iowa's elected GOP officials
who attended the rally appeared to be concerned that Trump had asked the Justice Department nine times to undermine the election results in what
appears to some to be an attempted coup.

You don't need to be a historian to recognize the danger in a political
party showing blind loyalty to one person. These GOP elected officials
just several months ago rightly criticized Trump and his role in the false election claims that led to the January 6 attack. With their presence at
his rally this weekend, it seems they've now changed their tune.

Perhaps they now agree with Trump's lies. But it's more likely their
flip-flop comes from recent polls showing that 91% of Republicans in Iowa
view Trump favorably. That, and not wanting to face the wrath of Trump,
like Georgia Gov. Kemp, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and other Republicans who
have dared to speak truthfully about the election.

But who knows what Trump whim will be the next litmus test for remaining
in his good graces? When even Grassley, Iowa's longest-serving US senator, thinks it's "smart" politics to no longer criticize Trump for his
un-American attack on our democracy and instead praise him in a pursuit of
an eighth term in the Senate, it's clear that the party is no longer
defined by policy ideas but by absolute loyalty to Trump and his
influence. To put it bluntly, today's GOP is how democracies die.

### - so maybe civil war IS indeed coming to america then? (that's the
worse case scenario anyway)

coz it seems to be what the right-wing are going all-out for now as their 'final-solution' to the (cough-cough) 'opposition problem' of democracy?? (geez, riiiight...)

personally, methinks they's only intuiting the truth in aiming for summat
like this, yes the 2-party system is inevitably coming to an end as it's already obviously served its purpose and can't take us any farther without major change or disaster, but surely not to that of falling into the right-wing's lap (as they apparently seem to hope/believe) any more than
it did in s.africa that time wherein the right-wing were forced to 'merge'
with the left rather than become extinct altogether!? (i.e., when push
came to shove the right-wing lost-out completely + catastrophically
BECAUSE they're in the minority!)

a civil war in america maybe then being precisely what will ultimately precipitate the downfall of the left/right-wing system altogether,
especially after the right-wing very likely commit many atrocities along
the way in their attempt to 'seize' power?? (i.e., can't see militia
groups like the proud boys et-al being likely to take any kinda gentle
approach to seizing power; there'd be hangings, shootings and lynchings, bombings & everything! shit people would never ever forget and ultimately despise/outlaw them all for!)

can thus only hope it doesn't ever come down to this, that maybe this last-ditch right-wing attempt will fail and the left-wing, will instead,
just remain in office now for the next several elections (if not
generations) whereby everything will then be all worked-out on a global
scale via long debated 'dialogue' instead of war...

something which could indeed happen, that is provided the american
majority 'remain' united enough to KEEP voting + USING their majority
(their natural weight) to keep those tricksy minority fuckers outta office legitimately! (it's easy really: they don't need to cheat or lie, all they
gots to do is ALL go out and vote and they'll win it every damn time!
simples lol)

and methinks the right-wing KNOWS this TOO? (damn right they do heh, else
why risk going down the path of civil war otherwise? something which
(along with voter suppression) are clearly all acts of desperation on
their part anyway: they KNOW it's all backfired & that their time is
short!)

(very interesting actually heh)

;)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)