Depending on how you define it my first political memory is either my mom having to explain to me what third base was because of the presidents impeachment trial or Gore loosing the election because of few hundred votes in one state even though millions more people voted for him.
Depending on how you define it my first political memory is either my mom having to explain to me what third base was because of the presidents impeachment trial or Gore loosing the election because of few hundred votes in one state even though millions more people voted for him.
And then the Supreme Court stopping the recounting of the vote to check that Gore really did loose the election by a few hundred votes because a five year old could have designed a better ballot.
(Not necessarily the facts of what happened but how my ten year old mind processing the events.)
Maybe this wasn't the reordering event for the American population, but in hindsight it seems to be when the Republican Party as an institution was rewarded for anti democracy actions rather than reprimanded for them.
Yup. Brooks Brothers Riot and January 6th have a lot in common. The Brooks Brothers Riot showed Roger Stone that if you show up at the offices of certification with enough angry middle class white people, you can change outcomes. Guess who was likely waste-deep in authoritarian street gangs in the lead up to J6th on behalf of Trump's circle? Mike Flynn and Roger Stone.
That's where the J6 spirit came from. And the Loudoun County school district meeting. And the *armed* storming of the Michigan capitol during CV lockdowns. It will keep going as long as it keeps working, and "working" may be as simply defined as "things didn't go the way that liberals wanted them to in government." You can draw a straight line of acceptance of authoritarian moves from the Brooks Brothers Riot to the Bundy Ranch to January 6th to whatever comes next (if you think this is over lulz at you).
My vote is for Bush v Gore.
Depending on how you define it my first political memory is either my mom having to explain to me what third base was because of the presidents impeachment trial or Gore loosing the election because of few hundred votes in one state even though millions more people voted for him.
And then the Supreme Court stopping the recounting of the vote to check that Gore really did loose the election by a few hundred votes because a five year old could have designed a better ballot.
(Not necessarily the facts of what happened but how my ten year old mind processing the events.)
Maybe this wasn't the reordering event for the American population, but in hindsight it seems to be when the Republican Party as an institution was rewarded for anti democracy actions rather than reprimanded for them.
Which started the cycle that Trump accelerated.
Yup. Brooks Brothers Riot and January 6th have a lot in common. The Brooks Brothers Riot showed Roger Stone that if you show up at the offices of certification with enough angry middle class white people, you can change outcomes. Guess who was likely waste-deep in authoritarian street gangs in the lead up to J6th on behalf of Trump's circle? Mike Flynn and Roger Stone.
That's where the J6 spirit came from. And the Loudoun County school district meeting. And the *armed* storming of the Michigan capitol during CV lockdowns. It will keep going as long as it keeps working, and "working" may be as simply defined as "things didn't go the way that liberals wanted them to in government." You can draw a straight line of acceptance of authoritarian moves from the Brooks Brothers Riot to the Bundy Ranch to January 6th to whatever comes next (if you think this is over lulz at you).