Trump's Insurrectionist Pals

Kentucky's other senator, Rand Paul, has hurt feelings.  He thinks that President Biden was talking about him and his fellow Republicans in his inaugural address.  

“If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly veiled innuendo,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during an interview on Fox News, “calling us white supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book.”

Paul also apparently objected to Biden’s saying that “there is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit.”

“Calling us people who don’t tell the truth,” Paul continued. “ ‘And going forward we’re not going to have manufactured or manipulated truth.’ That’s another way of saying ‘All of my opponents manufacture or manipulate the truth and are liars.’ ”

Guess what, Rand?  He was talking about the racist wing of the Republican Party - which is massive.  He was talking about the Republican members of Congress, who amplified Trump's lies about the election and refused to recognize that Biden's election was not just free and fair, but also a rejection of Trumpism and the cozy relationship that Paul and his fellow Republicans in Congress have with Trump's lies and corruption.

The crowd that formed on January 6 to listen to Trump's lies included quite a few Republican office holders and officials.  

In the crowd that day were 13 members of state Houses or Assemblies; three state senators; a county commissioner; a city council member; a GOP congressional district chair; a district director; and a co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. The group also includes a QAnon conspiracy theorist; a self-described member of a fascist militia; and a man who once declared that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” 

These GOP officials, after all, were taking part in, and lending credence to, the finale of a months long campaign to falsely discredit the results of a fair election. All were eager participants in a nakedly anti-democratic ploy to keep their preferred president in power, and helped whip a fascist mob into a frenzy.

Trump's January 6 rally wasn't a spontaneous demonstration, it was the culmination of two days of carefully orchestrated events,  designed to foment an insurrection to stop Congress from doing its Constitutionally mandated duty.  The funding and organization of the Trump's rally came from an array of right wing  organizations.

The two days of rallies were staged not by white nationalists and other extremists, but by well-funded nonprofit groups and individuals that figure prominently in the machinery of conservative activism in Washington.

Organizing warm-up events is not the same thing as plotting to invade the Capitol. But before the rallies, some used extreme rhetoric, including references to the American Revolution, and made false claims about the election to rouse supporters to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Unless Congress responds to the protests, “everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building,” tweeted Ali Alexander, a former CNP fellow who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement. “1776 is *always* an option.”

Events included a “Patriot Caravan” of buses to Washington, a “Save the Republic” rally on Jan. 5 and a “Freedom Rally” on the morning of Jan. 6. A little-known nonprofit called Women for America First, a group run by Trump supporters and former tea party activists, got approval to use space on the Ellipse for what they called a “March for Trump,” according to the “public gathering permit” issued on Jan. 5.

Nearly a dozen political activists — including former White House, congressional and Trump campaign staffers — served as on-site rally coordinators and stage managers, the permit said. A spokesperson for Women for America First did not respond to requests for comment.

The list of right wing organizations and Republican groups involved includes almost all of what used to be the far right fringe of American politics.  Now, those groups - the racist, the fascists, the adherents to "alternate facts," the Christian Dominionists, the QAnons - they are the beating heart of the Republican Party.  

Is it any wonder why Rand Paul is so defensive about being called racist and a liar?  If the shoe fits.