> so they remain in power no matter how extreme their positions
If you watched actual Republican primaries, as opposed to reading about scary Republicans on Twitter, you'd see this is wildly inaccurate - there is substantial variety among Republican positions, and there are things which different Republican voters (gasp! Republicans voter can differ!) are willing and not willing to tolerate. Which kinda would be expected from a party uniting tens of millions of people, if you think about it a bit...
> Maybe also flying under your radar is a complete disdain among many Republicans for the concept of elections and democracy as a concept.
This is also wildly false - if anything, Republicans are very upset right now exactly because they feel the concept of elections is under attack. Whether it is true or not, it's exactly the opposite of what would happen if they disdained the concept of elections.
> and they are stacking the deck to make sure they never have to lose an election again
This canard is dusted off on every election, and it is as false today as it was first time when it was invented. Nobody is ensuring "they never have to lose an election again", however sweet that may sound to a partisan ear, and it's not possible for Republicans even more given that Democrats almost exclusively control large population centers. Yes, there are places where Republicans routinely win (as there are places where Democrats routinely win) - it's not a nefarious conspiracy, it's a demographic fact. But this will never become everywhere, elections in the US in general has always been competitive, and remain so.
> Last time they lost an election they literally plotted and attempted to execute a coup.
No they did not. They had a protest. Which led to nothing except Democrats trying to milk it for the last drops of that sweet partisan outrage juice for the last year and a half. That's all there was.
> Now they are trying to make what they did in 2020 legal.
What they did in 2020 - namely protesting - already is legal. What some of them did - like fighting with the police, stealing things and vandalizing things - is not legal, and nobody is trying to make it legal.
> What do you think happens next? Genuine question there.
Next there will be 2022 elections where Democrats suffer some serious drubbing due to Presidential party routinely suffering drubbing in the midterms, compounded by dismal performance of the current President and generally unfavorable surrounding conditions. Some Democrats (not the smartest ones) will scream the democracy is dead in the US and fascism has been finally installed, and this is the last elections ever. Then there would be 2024 elections as usual, with the usual appropriate screaming and running around from parties involved. I have no idea who would win, but I am sure it'd be as close as ever, and whatever party wins, the other party would claim the election has been stolen and the democracy in the US has ended and fascism has been installed. The democracy will continue as it did for the last 250 years.
Indictments do not prove anything - indictment is just an opinion of people at DOJ, controlled by the party that wants to punish those people. All while ignoring much more harmful and violent protests both in DC and all over the country, all while they are being described as "mostly peaceful". There was no "coup attempt", and the protest didn't even get nearly as violent as many protests were in 2020. People going into government buildings happened many times before - including occupying them for many days, disrupting the proceedings, and even setting government buildings on fire. It's not a good thing, to be sure, but by the standards of what we've seen in the last decade, even the last couple of years, this protest was pretty tame. Only the partisan needs of the Democrats make them to inflate it into something it never has been.
It's pretty clear you haven't even paid attention to the developments of the past 18 months, and made up your mind in the week following Jan 6 as to what the event was. Comparing Jan 6 to BLM reveals you don't really know anything why those people went to DC on that day, and what was going on behind the scenes between Nov 3 and that day. You don't have to take my word for it; top-ranking Republicans including White House officials have already testified under oath as to the facts. They don't support your "protest" theory.
Will you change your mind when the convictions for seditious conspiracy start coming down, or will that just be the result of biased juries and judges?
The siege on the Capitol was 2021. That's when people were fighting with police but people convinced themselves that protestors in 2020 weren't beaten, gassed nor arrested by the busload.
> That's when people were fighting with police but people convinced themselves that protestors in 2020 weren't beaten, gassed nor arrested by the busload.
Who are "people" that don't believe (m/any) protestors were beaten, tear-gassed, or arrested in 2020? I'm sure there are some nuts out there, but I don't think many people on any side of the issue would seriously argue that out of the millions of people who were protesting all over the country (amid bona fide riots) that there were no instances of excessive use of force by police toward protestors. This seems like nut-picking.
If you watched actual Republican primaries, as opposed to reading about scary Republicans on Twitter, you'd see this is wildly inaccurate - there is substantial variety among Republican positions, and there are things which different Republican voters (gasp! Republicans voter can differ!) are willing and not willing to tolerate. Which kinda would be expected from a party uniting tens of millions of people, if you think about it a bit...
> Maybe also flying under your radar is a complete disdain among many Republicans for the concept of elections and democracy as a concept.
This is also wildly false - if anything, Republicans are very upset right now exactly because they feel the concept of elections is under attack. Whether it is true or not, it's exactly the opposite of what would happen if they disdained the concept of elections.
> and they are stacking the deck to make sure they never have to lose an election again
This canard is dusted off on every election, and it is as false today as it was first time when it was invented. Nobody is ensuring "they never have to lose an election again", however sweet that may sound to a partisan ear, and it's not possible for Republicans even more given that Democrats almost exclusively control large population centers. Yes, there are places where Republicans routinely win (as there are places where Democrats routinely win) - it's not a nefarious conspiracy, it's a demographic fact. But this will never become everywhere, elections in the US in general has always been competitive, and remain so.
> Last time they lost an election they literally plotted and attempted to execute a coup.
No they did not. They had a protest. Which led to nothing except Democrats trying to milk it for the last drops of that sweet partisan outrage juice for the last year and a half. That's all there was.
> Now they are trying to make what they did in 2020 legal.
What they did in 2020 - namely protesting - already is legal. What some of them did - like fighting with the police, stealing things and vandalizing things - is not legal, and nobody is trying to make it legal.
> What do you think happens next? Genuine question there.
Next there will be 2022 elections where Democrats suffer some serious drubbing due to Presidential party routinely suffering drubbing in the midterms, compounded by dismal performance of the current President and generally unfavorable surrounding conditions. Some Democrats (not the smartest ones) will scream the democracy is dead in the US and fascism has been finally installed, and this is the last elections ever. Then there would be 2024 elections as usual, with the usual appropriate screaming and running around from parties involved. I have no idea who would win, but I am sure it'd be as close as ever, and whatever party wins, the other party would claim the election has been stolen and the democracy in the US has ended and fascism has been installed. The democracy will continue as it did for the last 250 years.