The disturbing support for authoritarianism
Plus, the twisted religion of Trumpism.
Recently at The Bulwark:
SONNY BUNCH: 'The Spine of Night' and the Business of Animation
CHARLIE SYKES: How Did We Not See It Coming?
You can support The Bulwark by subscribing to Bulwark+ or just by sharing this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
Charlie Sykes, Amanda Carpenter, Jonathan Last, and Sarah Longwell discuss and dissect the January 6 insurrection one year later—what happened, what we still don’t know, and what we need to do to defend democracy.
Come join us at 8 Eastern, but only if you’re a Bulwark+ member.
TOM HOGAN writes: One Year After Jan. 6th, a new poll shows disturbing support for authoritarianism.
Since the Jan. 6th insurrection one year ago today, various surveys have shown continuing support among Republicans for Donald Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election. Some of the surveys show support for violence to achieve political ends—such as this Washington Post/University of Maryland poll from mid-December showing that more than a third of respondents (34 percent) believe that violence against our government can sometimes be justified. Many other recent polls confirm this finding.
But how many Trump supporters would be willing to actually take up arms to reinstate him as president? I watched for this number, but all the polls I saw focused on attitudes, not actions. So I contacted David Hill and commissioned the new poll to measure just how autocratic we are today and expect/want to be in the future.
The results were even more alarming than I suspected. As noted above, in our survey nearly 2 percent of the respondents said they would be willing to take up arms to restore Trump to power. Admittedly, that figure is within the poll’s margin of error (3 percent). But assuming that it is accurate, that 2 percent, if extended to the entire nation, would translate to some 3 million people willing to take up arms in support of Trump. That’s a number that should get all of our attention.
Conspiracy theories are at the core of Donald Trump, and the Republican Party still took him in. The surprise is that we are surprised. The New Yorker's Susan Glasser and Princeton's Julian Zelizer join Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
We’ve begun to live in this bizarro world where internet trolling culture has blended seamlessly with events of historic consequence.
THOMAS LECAQUE writes on the Twisted, Trumpist Religion of Jan. 6th.
It is easy to take a website offline. It is easy to act as though something unpleasant is an aberration, as the Jericho March organizers have claimed that the violence of January 6th was. But there is another way of looking at the group’s role in what happened that day: A coalition of evangelical and Catholic extremists claiming to be “prophetically inspired” and naming itself for one of the most bloodthirsty passage in the Bible decided, on the basis of lies, to wage holy war against the American Republic.
Meanwhile, reporters and historians should continue to probe the role of religion in the attack of Jan. 6th. (The new website UncivilReligion.org, filled with disturbing images from and essays about that day, is an excellent starting place.) This is a matter not only of journalistic and academic interest but of potentially urgent interest to the future of our democracy—after all, the group may be gone, but its members haven’t gone anywhere.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Today is a solemn day. A day we should never forget. People on social media make comparisons to 9/11, but I don’t think that’s right. But it’s in the same category: a dark day in U.S. history we should never forget.
I made it a point to call some of my friends who had to live though it to check on them and see how they are doing. I wasn’t there, and this still wears on me. I can only imagine the PTSD and other nightmares that might result from being there this day, last year.
President Biden’s speech today is worth watching/reading. It was a good speech.
This is what stuck with me:
And so at this moment, we must decide, what kind of nation are we going to be? Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people?
Will Virginia be ready for the next storm? They say yes.
Tim Miller on the Bay Current pod… Take a listen.
Matt Labash is against sourness.
Wait for it… The Cyber Ninjas are in trouble. You hate to see it.
Rep. Andy Kim remembers the insurrection. A worthwhile thread.
The ‘reasonable people’ sure moved on pretty quickly!
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
—30—
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.