New Polls show GOP has embraced violence yet corporate media still will not use the word FASCISM!

On Monday night, we learned that Trump loving Solomon Peña had followed his idol Trump’s playbook to a tee after he lost his election in November for New Mexico state legislature. Pena’s actions ranged from claiming the election was “rigged” to committing political violence. But if you think Pena or Trump are outliers in today’s GOP, I have some bone-chilling news to share about recent polling that tells us that large swaths of today’s GOP view violence as an acceptable tool to acquire and retain political power.

But let’s start with Pena. Just as Trump did after losing in 2020, Pena refused to concede, instead claiming his election was “rigged.” In Trumpian fashion, Pena tweeted early last month that, “Once the rigging is stopped, I will be sworn in as the State Rep for district 14.”

In reality, Pena lost the election badly to incumbent Democrat Miguel P. Garcia by 5,679 to 2,033, or 74% to 26%. But then again, facts don’t matter to neither Trump nor Pena.  That is why after the election, Pena visited the homes of Democratic officials in the area, claiming he had proof of voter fraud. This was just like Trump filing numerous lawsuits after the election to overturn the results. But like Trump, Pena had no credible evidence to back up his claims.

That is when Pena—who had been at the Capitol on Jan 6 in support of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally—copied Trump’s final step: violence. In the case of Trump, the final Jan 6 committee report lays out that Trump was the reason for and incited the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.  In fact, one of the four crimes the Jan 6 committee referred Trump to DOJ for prosecution was for inciting or assisting in an “insurrection” in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2383.

Well in the case of Pena, he didn’t have throngs of supporters willing to commit acts of violence in his name as Trump did. Instead, Pena had to hire people to help in his plot. As the Albuquerque Police Department detailed, Pena allegedly conspired with and paid four other men to shoot at the homes of four Democratic officials in the area, two county commissioners and two state legislators.  The shootings began in early December when eight rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, followed days later when state Rep. Javier Martinez's home was targeted. From there two other Democrats saw their homes and offices targeted. Thankfully, no one was hurt but bullets did almost strike the 10-year-old daughter of one of the Democrats.

Have you heard Republican leaders like Trump, Kevin McCarthy or Ron DeSantis denouncing these series of politically motivated attacks? Of course not. And the reason is clear, polls show that a large chunk of the GOP base supports political violence in pursuit of power.

A Los Angeles Times commissioned poll released just two weeks ago--on the second anniversary of Jan 6--deserved far more media coverage given the red flags raised by it. The poll asked if respondents approved or disapproved of “Trump supporters taking over the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, to stop congressional proceedings.”

What percentage of Trump supporters now approve of the Jan 6 attack designed to prevent the peaceful transfer of power? 40 percent!! Yep, this poll found 4 in 10 Trump supporters either strongly or somewhat approved the violent and unAmerican Jan 6 attack on our Capitol.

What percentage of Trump supporters “strongly” disapprove of the Jan 6 attack? Before you answer, for context let me first tell you that 80 percent of people who voted for President Biden STRONGLY disapprove of Jan 6.  But when it comes to Trump voters, only 29 percent strongly disapprove of the attack to “stop congressional proceedings,”

This poll is not alone in warning us that the GOP base increasingly sees political violence as acceptable. A CBS poll from last June found that 56% of Republicans—not just Trump supporters—view the Jan 6 attack as an act “defending freedom.” That same poll found nearly 50% of GOP now see what happened on Jan 6 as “patriotic.” Millions of Republicans are telling us point blank that they support political violence.

To repeat the obvious, there was no evidence supporting Trump’s claims of election fraud. That is why Trump lost every legal case –including in front of judges and justices he personally appointed. The Jan 6 attack was simply Trump’s back up plan when he realized that his legal options to overturn the 2020 election were fading. The timing of Trump’s December 19, 2020 tweet calling his supporters to gather Jan 6 in Washington, D.C. for a “wild” time make that clear since he sent that plea in the early hours of December 19, after a six hour meeting in the Oval office with his lawyers and advisors made it clear he had no legal way to stop the Jan 6 certification of Biden’s win.

Again, to repeat the obvious – but it needs to be said—today’s GOP is what FASCISM looks like. I don’t say that hyperbolically. I say the GOP is a fascist movement based on how experts have defined the concept.

As the late Madeline Albright explained in 2019 when discussing her great book, “Fascism: A Warning,”— “Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.”

As Albright instructively noted, “The important thing is that fascists aren’t actually trying to solve problems; they’re invested in exacerbating problems and deepening the divisions that result from them.” Sound familiar?!

Albright also had these words to say back in 2019 which fit like a glove in describing today’s GOP: “I think what differentiates fascism from other ideological movements is the use of violence and anger to achieve political ends. What you almost always see in fascist regimes is propaganda being used to set people against each other without any potential solutions to any of the problems.” She emphasized that “violence is a crucial element of fascism. Whatever else it is, fascism involves the endorsement and use of violence to achieve political goals and stay in power.”

Since Jan 6, other experts have backed up that large parts of today’s GOP has embraced fascism.

If Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis truly wanted to clamp down on political voice they could easily denounce the attacks plus declare that if you support such violence, we do NOT want you in our party. But they won’t. And the reason is they know the GOP base better than anyone and they know a huge swath of Republicans support violence to achieve and retain political power. This is what fascism looks like. Period.

---

---