That *is* the important part, actually. They pretend they support something unthinkable to fool the rubes, because they know it’ll fail. The rubes, as intended, believe they actually mean it. This becomes a problem once they get the power to actually do it. https://twitter.com/kbaxter/status/1345634791757029377

Someday, when they have the votes to actually do the unthinkable thing, the people now play-acting a coup will be inclined to balk. But the rubes — egged on by some new populist charlatan of the moment, out-pretending the pretenders — will insist they follow through. And why not?

After all, they *said* they wanted to do it. They even VOTED for it! So what possible argument can they make against it later, other than “I was lying to you before”? Thus, they’re faced with a choice between (1) losing face & power, or (2) harming the country. We know what wins.

We see this happening even now. Most of these assholes didn’t want this vote. They wanted to pretend to support Trump’s coup but quietly let Jan. 6 pass. Hawley called their bluff. And now they’re gonna vote for it because the rubes, and consistency with their own lies, demand it

Same thing happened with Obamacare and the debt ceiling. They lied to the rubes for years, insisting this compromise law adapted from a Mitt Romney plan was SOCIALISM and THE END OF FREEDOM. So Ted Cruz came along and said hey, we should shut down the government to SAVE FREEDOM.

Which, of course! If you believe something is truly THE END OF FREEDOM & AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT, certainly it’d be worth a gov’t shutdown/debt default to try to stop it.

Of course, that was all a lie. But the rubes believed it, as intended. Cruz took it to the next logical step.

This is literally how the GOP ended up with Trump. They kept lying to their base, pretending they wanted things they had no intention of actually doing — deporting millions of immigrants, for example — and the base eventually noticed “hey, they’re not doing it.” Enter Trump.

The GOP keeps making this same fucking mistake, pandering in these incredibly destructive ways because they think they can control the fallout. But they can’t, and they end up going in directions they never initially intended — since ultimately keeping power is their top priority