It is now almost two months since the riots at Capitol Hill, speaking from a safe distance in time. It seems that:
- Trump now owns and controls the Republican Party.
- He has persuaded the Republicans to purge the party of dissent, and of those people who stood for principle and reality, against him.
- Republicans will no longer even attempt to speak the truth about him, or they are gone.
- He is, assuming he survives, a guaranteed candidate for the 2024 election, and if people are not enthusiastic for Biden, then he may well win.
- Republicans involved in counting the vote, know the risk they take if they don’t ensure that Trump wins.
- Republican states are apparently already increasing their ability to deregister voters and fix elections.
- He has earned a considerable amount of money from his fans by portraying himself as the victim of a plot.
- Fox has hired people he likes and who worked well with him, so they will be even more pro-Trump, and less of a news station.
- He will probably be able to portray criminal charges against himself as anti-Trump mania, and may be able to fix up, or frighten judges or juries.
- He may well now be able to threaten people with mob rule, and his capacity for stochastic terrorism is greatly increased.
- Other people are being blamed for the riots, so he keeps his supporters.
- He has demonstrated, yet again, he can say or do anything. If he becomes the next president, he will have no effective opposition, and nothing to curtail his vengeance, on those who hinted at opposing him.
- The riot was his beer hall putsch, and he did not even go to jail. He suffered no inconvenience at all from attempting to steal an election. Not even the slightest. People talked about charges, but so far no sign. We can assume he will continue to increase his hold on the Right and increase his encouragement of direct violence.
If things had gone well for him, or as planned, it is possible that he could have been able to declare a state of emergency and martial law, or at least hurt and damage people who opposed him, or who followed the law like Mike Pence – and it would not have been his fault if Pence had died. “Terribly Sad” he might say.
***********
From an even later period of time, late July 2021, the group identification levels and binaries seem to have increased even further. Democrats now seem to be considered completely untrustworthy and evil by many non-fanatics on the Right.
It is now perfectly acceptable to say that the riot was like a capitol tour, that there was love in the air, that it is the fault of Democrats, that Democrats are communist traitors who are persecuting innocent protestors, that the election was fixed by China (who have taken over the Democrats) and so on.
Many seem to say the riot could not have occurred because conservatives are peaceful, therefore the images are faked or the rioters were not real Trump followers. The beating of police officers is denied, they are “crisis actors” and “angry left-wing political activists”. One black officer is apparently discredited because he thinks there is white racism in the US… talk about cancelling.
It will take real strength of mind not to go along with this and the continuing purge of any dissent from the party.
So the riot both ‘shows’ the anger of ‘conservatives,’ and tells them that they are innocent and being persecuted. It has not harmed Trump at all, and helped to confirm his standing as the next Candidate for President. And he will win if Democrats do not all get out to vote – assuming it is still legal in Republican controlled states… [that is a joke]