PMC Hysteria

So many targets.

Now that Donald Trump is gone, what is there to fight about? Personally, I didn’t think he was doing a good job, but he is no longer the president.

PBS:

“As Republicans adjust to their diminished stature in Washington, they have been consumed by infighting over the party’s future, with opposing factions in open disagreement about how to deal with the rising tide of extremism on the right that grew out of Donald Trump’s presidency.

The debate has centered on the same questions that dominated national politics for the past four years. Did Trump transform the Republican Party into a cult of personality, destined to fall apart the moment he lost power? Or is Trumpism, far from being an aberration, part of a broader sea change in conservative politics …?

“Deprogram extremists”?

Technocratic neoliberalism gone wild …

Washington Post:

“Her brother couldn’t make it to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but she worried that he would join a new insurrection — that one day “he would be one of the people on TV.”

The woman in her 30s asked her family to make plans, she said, hoping to keep her brother busy. Then she contacted a nonprofit called Parents for Peace that seeks to pull people back from extremism, hoping to “save” him, after years of dismay at his hatred of Muslims and Mexicans and now alarm at his anger over the presidential election.

Dissecting her brother’s life and their relationship in weekly sessions, she started to wonder whether she was part of the problem. …”

“White supremacist soft power.”

When I say they are the most awful, miserable, unfriendliest, hypocritical, pretentious and blinkered people in the entire country, I am not exaggerating. They have no clue how they come across.

Lawfare Blog:

“President Biden has taken office amid a serious problem of white supremacist violent extremism. The storming of the U.S. Capitol cast this problem in stark relief. The crowd brandished hate symbols on banners and clothing, paraded the Confederate flag throughout the halls of the Capitol, and erected a noose at its steps. Many came armed and prepared for violence. While the rioters have dispersed, the threat persists. The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Jan. 27 that like-minded extremists could incite or commit violence in the first weeks of Biden’s presidency. The Jan. 13 federal Joint Intelligence Bulletin, which highlights terrorist threats to the homeland, warned of “emboldened” violent extremists and an “elevated” domestic terrorism threat persisting in 2021.  

The issue is not new for Biden. In his nomination speech, he explained that the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville was the very reason he decided to run for office, saying, “At that moment, I knew I’d have to run.”

Indeed, a certain sense of urgency about the problem is warranted: White supremacist and kindred hate-based terror attacks have skyrocketed approximately 250 percent in the West since 2014. The hard question is not whether the United States has a serious problem, but how the new team can counter what is an obvious trend. The United States built its post-9/11 counterterrorism toolkit to fight an enemy overseas. At home, though, while this toolkit contains many useful law enforcement instruments, it lacks good tools for deradicalizing Americans. Countering the threat will take understanding all dimensions of this radicalization, including one too often overlooked: white supremacists’ weaponization of soft power.  

At first glance, this claim may seem silly. For one thing, soft power is, well, soft. …”

It’s definitely not going anywhere in this Congress.

USA Today:

“For the past several Congresses, I’ve introduced the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act with Congressman Brad Schneider (D-IL). Our bill would establish offices to combat domestic terrorism at the Department of Justice, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. And it would require these offices to regularly assess the domestic terrorism threat and focus their limited resources on the most significant threats. Crucially, the legislation would provide training and resources to assist state, local and tribal law enforcement in addressing domestic terrorism threats. …”

The Trump side has already decisively won.

New York Times:

“In other words, how can we save the Republican Party, now in the midst of a fight over its confused and darkened soul? Take it away from Republican Party activists and give it to the people. We already have a way to make it work. …”

If you want to save the Republican Party, run against these people! It unifies the Republican Party and resonates with Independents.