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So, as promised, I am putting together an "epic" thread of how we got to yesterday. It'll probably be a long thread, so you may want to utilize a thread reader or just read along with me. It's going to span decades and I hope that it provides people with a sense of what /1
really led to the insanity that was yesterday. I actually was only going to go back about 10 years or so, but it's time to go back further, a lot further! So if you're ready, let's roll! /2
It's 1992 and George HW Bush is POTUS. I recall all the SNL skits about who the Democrat was going to be to lose to Bush because his approval (right after Gulf War) was in the high 80s or low 90s as I recall, but what happened? He reneged on his promise not to raise taxes /3
and was much more pro-world solutions rather than American solutions than Reagan was. Reagan was unabashedly PRO-AMERICA. That won him two amazing landslide victories in 80 and 84, not to mention that he was a likeable a relatable guy, despite being a Hollywood actor. /4
HW Bush on the other hand was a creature of Washington. He was ambassador to the UN, CIA director, Liaison to China, then tried to run for POTUS in 80, became VP, and ultimately POTUS. He didn't have the personal connection Reagan did so he was weak as a politician /5
so once he started reneging on his promises, people were getting angry. Keep in mind that Reagan's coalition was HUGE. Republicans, Democrats, Independents of all stripes. HW Bush retained some of that in 88, but once he started governing like a traditional old school /6
Republican, that support started peeling off and quick. And who saw an opening? Why it was a billionaire named Ross Perot. He wasn't a slick politician. He was a straight shooting businessman. People liked the way he talked and the policies he promoted. Remember NAFTA? /7
You'll hear a "giant sucking sound" down to Mexico with all the jobs going down there. People gravitated to that heavily. Bush lost major support and a little known governor from Arkansas named Clinton pounced on that and snuck in the WH with only 43% of the popular vote /8
Clinton initially had a Democrat House and Senate. While the Senate had switched back and forth several times throughout the years, the House had been solid Democrat since the 50s, never changing hands once in 40 years. A few things happened during his first two years /9
The first was that there were several scandals in both Congress and in the White House, but the biggest was a policy called "Hillarycare". A congressman from GA, Gingrich, changed campaigning forever in 1994. He effectively nationalized each House race as a vote against /10
the big government overreach of the Clinton administration. The 94 election was a landslide for Republicans regaining the Senate and for the first time in 40 years, Republicans controlled the House! /11
This setup a big dynamic where the Congress became a big check on President Clinton. "The era of big government is over". Clinton was masterful in triangulating and taking over the messaging, but nonetheless, he still didn't achieve a "majority" of the popular vote in 96, /12
while winning overwhelming re-election over Dole. Perot was on the ticket again, still saying the same thing, but was much less effective. The internet was in its infancy but growing and causing an economic boom helping fuel his re-election. Congress stayed red, but there /13
was something brewing in the background. Impeachment. The Clinton administration was scandal plagued before there was a Clinton administration, but there was one thing that was going to hurt like nothing else. Ken Starr was an independent Counsel appointed by AG Reno /14
and one of the things he was looking into was whether Clinton perjured himself in his deposition in the Paula Jones suit regarding inappropriate relationship with a certain infamous intern, Monica Lewinsky. "Depends on what the definition of 'is' is." Turns out that indeed /15
he perjured himself. Yes, the lie was about sex, but perjury is a big deal, especially for a sitting president. Starr reported this to Congress. Gingrich was still smarting from the government shutdown in which Clinton emerged victorious thanks to a willing and able press /16
so he and the R's in Congress pushed article of impeachment for perjury against the president. In fact, an organization formed to get people to tell Congress to "move on" from the impeachment stuff. I bet you can guess the name. Well, he was impeached, not convicted and the /17
world moved on. His approval ratings still were high, thanks mostly due to the dot com bubble boom that was still expanding in 1998. Then came the 2000 election. This was the first presidential election that I was old enough to vote in and what a crazy one to be my first! /18
Clinton's own VP was the Dem nominee and after a rough and tumble primary, GW Bush, eldest son of the previous president, became the Republican nominee. Polls showed the race VERY tight and indeed that turned out to be the case in the end. It all "hanged" on the fate of FL /19
Let's remind you of a few things on election night about FL. Remember that FL has voting that has two cutoffs. Most of the state has voting that ends at 7 pm Eastern, while the panhandle voting ends at 8 pm Eastern. The news networks all called Florida for Gore before 8 pm /20
So many folks in the panhandle simply went home because hey, the networks called it. The governor of FL at the time happened to be Jeb! and he didn't buy that for a second. Eventually, the networks all had to retract that call. Very late in the evening, the networks called /21
the race for Bush. Gore called and conceded the race and went to make a concession speech. Literally right before he stepped on stage, he was stopped and told not to do it that his people thought the networks were wrong and that he would ultimately win, so he called Bush /22
back an took back his concession. The networks changed the race back to too close to call. What transpired was a complete debacle known commonly now as the FL recount. This whole process took 37 days to fully recount, litigate, and conclude. The result? After the SCOTUS /23
final ruling, Bush wins by 535 votes in FL and thus wins the presidency. A large portion of Democrats believed the election was stolen and there were objections to the count in Congress as well as the media did their own independent analysis b/c they too didn't believe it /24
There were protests at his inauguration and poll after poll showed that many Democrats and some independents believed that Bush stole this election and he "wasn't my president". The one thing that changed everything was 9/11. His approval ratings soared and finally there /25
was some real unity in the country. That began, naturally, to revert back to normal as the war dragged on and after the Iraq conflict began and became an occupation with lots of questions as to what our goal was and how long we were going to be there. By 2004, his chances /26
for reelection looked very shaky. The one thing in his favor was he ran against a senator, Kerry, who was a major flip-flopper and also had major baggage left over from Vietnam. Even then though, it was a VERY close race. He didn't receive a majority popular vote win back /27
in 2000 and this time may turn out to be the same razor thin margin. Indeed it did, though exit polls had Kerry blowing him out of the water. It all hinged on Ohio this time, but he eeked it out and managed to get a bare majority in the popular vote too, but we were still /28
very much a 50/50 nation. The wars still went poorly, he tried to appoint Harriet Myers to SCOTUS which backfired spectacularly, he also tried to do a massive immigration bill that almost made it through, but conservatives rallied the troops and melted the phone lines in /29
Congress and that bill died. A new counsel was appointed to look into the Valerie Plame 'scandal' and blamed VP Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby who didn't leak her name, and the counsel knew who leaked it from the start, but it was about trying to use it to switch /30
the hands in Congress in 2006. (Is any of this sounding familiar yet?) And sure enough San Fran Nan and Dingy Harry came to power in a big way. Numerous investigations and his power eroded. Then comes 2008. Who wants to be president? Hillary seeks the nomination and /31
all the Democrats to fall in line, but a new senator from Illinois storms onto the scene, Obama. He's young, speaks well, and people fall in love with the guy. They have a very very bitter primary fight and they both used every trick in the book against one another /32
but in the end, Obama outclasses her and eeks out the win. The question is whether he can win in the general election. McCain is his opponent who is a wishy washy senator who has wanted to be president forever. The chances of an Obama victory don't look good in the summer /33
but what happens in September of 2008? Why an economic meltdown that we haven't seen in 80 years, which happens to be McCain's biggest weakness. McCain stumbles and bumbles while people panic and flock to Obama who offers "hope". In the end, Obama wins in a 'landslide' /34
Not only that, but then Democrats have huge majorities in the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. What do they focus on? Healthcare. They use every trick in the legislative book to pass "Obamacare" What happens after that? One of the biggest tidal wave /35
midterm elections in history. The Republicans trounce Democrats in the House, but surprisingly don't reclaim the Senate (mainly poor political calculus). This puts a damper on things for the administration to say the least. Then comes the election in 2012. The /36
Republican primary is quite crowded and no one quite knows who will get the nod, as candidates rise and fall very quickly. Ultimately, it ends up as the runner up from 2008, Mitt Romney and his VP choice, Paul Ryan. There were some folks, like myself, that really felt as /37
though the Romney/Ryan ticket had a really good shot. Obama's policies were not particularly popular, though he was personally popular. Romney/Ryan were big technocrats and seemed like they had "the answer" for what ailed America and to get us back on the right path. /38
Election night came in 2012 and though it was definitely closer than 2008, Obama won re-election, while losing millions of votes from 2008. I was genuinely shocked and didn't realize at the time, how much it mattered that people needed to "connect" on a personal level with /39
the candidate versus connecting on a policy level, which is something that made a major difference in 2016. 2014 midterms served up the Senate. Recall that Republicans said if you give us the House, we'll stop Obama's policies. Didn't work, then it was give us the Senate /40
and we'll stop these dreadful policies. Didn't work. Remember the Iran Deal? That was a treaty that required Senate approval (2/3), but Bobby Corker and gang wanted it but couldn't openly say they did, so they concocted a hairbrained scheme to have a vote of disapproval /41
which did absolutely nothing in the real world, but boy did they show their constituents back home how mad they were. By this point, people stopped listening to these idiots in Congress. It had become painfully obvious that so many people had not been heard since the 80s /42
and that they wanted people who would FIGHT for their values and put #AmericaFirst rather than sending out foreign aid or entering into this ridiculous multi-national trade agreements which hollowed out middle America and destroyed the lives of so many people. That brings us /43
to the 2016 election. Ted Cruz, my initial candidate of choice, was the first to announce and many others followed, Rubio, Jeb!, Paul, etc. Then one man came down his golden escalator. Trump was someone that everyone knew. He was bold, brash, and unafraid to say anything /44
Lots of folks, including myself at the time, did not take him seriously. He had never held office, never been in the military, seemed like a NY liberal; however, what we all didn't understand at that time was that despite being a billionaire TV star from Queens, he connected /45
with the everyday man and woman. He understood them and spoke like them. He quickly became the front runner and still no one took him seriously. Sure, he'd win a couple states, but he couldn't last. He did. He broke EVERY single rule in the book. The media loved him /46
and promoted him widely during the primary, which I have no doubt was a two fold strategy (ratings and an easy win in November), but a funny thing happened on the other side. Hillary was back, but a crazy old man named Bernie gave her a run for her money that NO ONE expected /47
sure, she won, but she had been damaged. That still didn't matter, even after Trump won the nomination, the Republican party was split badly. #NeverTrumpers seemed to be everywhere. @NRO had a whole list of them on their cover. Polls everywhere showed that Clinton had/48
anywhere from a 75%-98% chance to win the presidency. Trump and Republicans were beyond toast. But what happened? Polls closed and vote counting started (and NEVER stopped). Trump won in places he said he would and no Republican had won in decades. He changed the map and /49
the makeup of the Republican party. It was more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, education, and class, despite what the press told you. Everyone and I mean everyone was stunned. I recall not even watching the returns and going to sleep early dreading a Hillary /50
presidency. I awoke to something straight out of a movie. The Democrats were in pure meltdown and were angry, scared, and stunned. I remember 2008 and feeling similar, but not to the crazy degree they were. They literally believed we were going to be the new Nazi Germany /51
and that's all because of the press. Their coverage was so outrageous and slanted that they terrified that side of the aisle and quite frankly many moderate Republicans as well who didn't like his style. Then came the #Russiahoax. Oh boy what a crazy, twisted tale that is! /52
Trump colluded directly with Putin to "steal" the election. $100,000 of Facebook ads swung it! We need to investigate. Special Counsel! When Mueller became special counsel after months of ridiculousness, how long did it go on? Nearly two years! Again, they knew immediately /53
there was no collusion, but that wasn't the point, like the Bush special counsel, it was there for one thing an one thing only, drag it on, cripple his ability to govern and flip Congress. It worked. 2018 had many things happen. Establishment R's like Ryan had used and /54
abused Trump to get their pet projects done while dangling the carrot like trade and the wall in front of Trump knowing full well they would never do it. Once they got what they wanted for K Street, they decided not to run for re-election. They didn't believe RussiaHoax /55
because they had been briefed about it and knew it was phony nonsense, but that didn't matter. Trump was their enemy. The enemy of multi-national trade deals, the enemy of H1 visas being handed out like candy, the enemy of every K Street project known to mankind and so /56
anything means necessary was going to be a-okay and by having so many retirements in 2018, it would help bolster the chances of Dems to reclaim the House. Plus they did nothing to help good conservatives like @DaveBratVA7th, since he knocked off Cantor (my congressman) to /57
get their revenge on the tea party folks. This was wicked and devious on their parts, but they didn't care. It was all out war with Trump and for his part, Trump should have fought back, but in the end, he is desperate to want to try to charm these people over to his way /58
of thinking, like he had done in his business career. But politics is a different animal. Its dog eat dog on the grandest scale. Everyone is your enemy, even your friends. Meanwhile, you had folks like Nunes screaming to the world that this Russia thing was a hoax and /59
Trump knew it was a hoax too, but he had all of these weasels in places of power, b/c Christie, McConell, Pence, and Ryan said these are great folks and use them. I'm talking about Coats, Pompeo, Haspel, Wray, Rosenstein. They were good, for establishment forces, but not /60
for the #AmericaFirst agenda. But let's keep in mind one thing about Trump. He really didn't care about governing and here's why. He's a businessman and CEO. They delegate and tell people what to do. That works in the private sector for the most part, but in government, /61
not so much. These powerful people have their own interests and slow walked so many things and then also remember you had #Resist folks embedded within the bureaucracy that could easily gum up the works for a long time with very little Trump could do. This was something /62
that the novice team of loyalists that Trump did have didn't understand. Just because he's the boss, doesn't mean that these people would roll over and do what he said. These bureaucrats were mainly left wingers who truly believed he was Hilter 2.0 and that he colluded /63
with the enemy to steal the presidency, so they had a duty to resist. It's a dangerous precedent to have set and we will see what happens in the future, but then comes the Muller report and Democrats House. It's a complete dud and there is no collusion and vague charges /64
of potential abuse of power, which after Mueller testifies, everyone knows that won't go anywhere. So they need something new. They get it with Vindman and the 'whistleblower' with the Ukraine call. They know that Trump is figuring out that something sketchy is up with /65
Biden and Ukraine and wants to get to the bottom of it, so they turn it 180 and accuse Trump of the sketchiness and then impeach him over it. In reality, they've been itching to impeach any Republican president in revenge for Clinton, so what better opportunity, especially /66
since they have the #fakenewsmedia dancing to their pied piper tune! All the while, the #deplorables as Hillary called Trump's coalition, are steaming mad. Trump's agenda is not being truly implemented and no one is defending him. Sure, the Senate votes not to convict, /67
but there has been so many priorities that Trump had that were shelved by Ryan and McConell during the first two years. Why? Because that's not THEIR agenda and Trump's coalition are finally figuring out that they've been had by these Republicans. The Graham's of the world /68
who go on Hannity and rail at the injustices against Trump and then behind closed doors laugh and joke how stupid he is and he'll be gone soon and they can get back to their Chamber of Commerce trade deals for their K Street overlords. That brings us all the way to 2020 /69
After impeachment, what comes? #COVID19 This is it! This is the way they can finally bring Trump to his knees. The scientific and medical community is against Trump since he's taken on big pharma and with health, people get scared really fast. Lockdowns, shortages, mass /70
hysteria by the news media cause major issues for Trump and his approval ratings start to dip. Meanwhile you have Democrats scheme to get Biden, who doesn't remember his own name, to be the nominee. Good old Uncle Joe. A harmless guy, someone who won't rock the boat. /71
And with the virus, we can keep him locked up! Brilliant! Then something else happens that they capitalize on. Race war! After George Floyd, whose death was an absolute tragedy, but the level of response was not appropriate. No one and I mean no one said what they did was /72
okay and yet there were mass riots in cities across the country. This didn't happen with Rodney King or anyone else. This was an obviously coordinated attempt to put fear into the suburban voter and it worked like a charm. I've never seen anything like it in my life /73
my neighborhood which is in a far suburban area in VA that contains very well to do people like doctors, lawyers, executives, etc. (not me unfortunately) had signs for BLM and the like. There was outright war on our neighborhood facebook page. It has been pure insanity, /74
but it highlights how effective this was against people, especially people who don't believe in that type of messaging. It was being forced down peoples' throat and it was and still is EVERYWHERE! It polarized and already very polarized nation and scared so many people /75
that they willingly went along with the craziness which then made more people uncomfortable expressing themselves and feel more isolated than they already were thanks to the lockdowns. They couldn't fight back because you had people screaming racist or that they wanted /76
people to die because they weren't social distancing right or not wearing their mask. This was taking place all over the country. At their work, in their neighborhoods, even within their own families! No one was willing to even listen to an opposing viewpoint! And then /77
you had social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc. actively censoring people who disagreed with the official line. Supposed factor checkers who fact checked nothing, but merely provided Leftist talking points as an excuse to censor posts, including the President! /78
Just added fuel to the fire. Finally we get to the election. Mass mail in balloting with no signature verification in so many places. Social media companies and mainstream press all saying the same thing. This year will be soooo different than previous years /79
you just won't know who won the election for awhile. They even called it out openly "the red mirage". Just ask @Peoples_Pundit. Sure enough, election night saw a red sea everywhere. Trump was performing above and beyond everyone's wildest expectations, but what happened? /80
After Fox called AZ for Biden, all the remaining swing states stopped counting. WI, MI, PA, GA. Even states like VA, with competitive congressional races like #VA07 stopped too. All roughly at the same time with all the same excuse. Everyone is tired, we'll resume /81
in the morning. Except, they kept counting after partisan observers left. A "skeleton crew" was left in place to keep counting. All of a sudden spikes in Biden mail in votes took place. Do I think Biden had an edge in mail in votes? Absolutely, because they promoted it /82
but these seemed awfully suspicious and it was right out of the book of how the election would happen per Facebook, Twitter, mainstream press. All very convenient. When observers came back, they weren't allowed near anyone, because COVID, of course. Amazingly masks didn't /83
work for vote counting, but shopping at Walmart, they work great. Look, there's fraud in all elections. Everyone knows that. The question is how widespread is it? We don't know because it's not investigated like it should be. There was a lot of smoke in this election and /84
there were no courts willing to fully hear the case against that. The cases kept getting tossed. Not because of the merits of the case, but because standing issues or 'latches'. "Sorry, you should have filed before the election, even though we would have tossed it then too /85
because there had been no harm to you at that point." It was the perfect catch-22 and everyone knew it. People saw this and were angry. No one took these potential issues seriously. The campaign never got their day in court to lay out the evidence they gathered. /86
It was also painfully obvious that the campaign was slow to act and did not have good legal representation. Too many political lawyers were NOT aligned with #AmericaFirst and so they didn't want to be involved. Those that did were harassed and forced to drop their /87
representation or they were just grifters sucking up dollars and then bailing after making a quick buck. There were quite a few that volunteered their time and effort and are genuinely good lawyers, but there was little guidance and strategy coming down from the top. /88
the legal side wasn't the only issue. State legislators did NOT want to get involved at all. You saw hearings? No you didn't. There were no official hearings anywhere. These were just groups of legislators meeting on their own time to "hear" the evidence and show their /89
constituents that they were serious about election fraud. They weren't. Sorry to say, it was a ruse folks. They never had a majority of their respective legislature to go along with it. Window dressing is all it was. More and more people started to realize what was going /90
on and there built more and more anger. People were not being heard. People are angry as heck. Meanwhile, social media companies are labeling everything as 'disputed' or 'false', when in actuality we didn't know anything because there had been no true case or hearing about /91
all of the irregularities that happened in November. No one is listening! The mainstream press dismisses it outright as conspiracy (unlike the real conspiracy RussiaHoax). Republicans are turning on him left and right. They moved on quick. Why won't these state legislators /92
take up the case? They want their federal dollars and the chance to rise up the national level one day and than means staying in the establishment's good graces. Do a little show trial, show some concerns, then walk away. And that's exactly what they did. Why the campaign /93
thought that would go anywhere is beyond me. They needed to have a legal strategy in place before the election had even taken place. The problem they had was that the national GOP was clearly banking on a loss by Trump, but I'm sure they told him he was going to win in a /94
landslide and he probably thought that too, as well as his supporters. "Look at these crowds!" everyone said and then look at Biden. No one shows up. The DNC convention was a joke! He'll lose by a mile. No need to worry about legal stuff. Meanwhile, the Democrats had /95
busy for well over a year weakening election laws and entering into consent decrees ( @GaSecofState) because "We're not racists!" and COVID! These people didn't have the power to do this, but even when the @GOP nominally sued, it usually lost, because they just didn't put /96
forth their best effort or arguments and didn't go to the legislature to tell them their power was being usurped. Once again, Trump was being ill served by an establishment hell bent on getting their power back by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the supporters are /97
not getting the information about what is happening from the mainstream press and most social media companies are censoring content, so they go deep into the web to find folks who some are rabble rousers, while others truly believe they know what's going down or what the /98
rules of the game are. In reality, they are deluding (perhaps not on purpose) people in believing there is a real chance that come January 6th, that everything was going to be laid bare and Trump would end up winning the election after all. They just don't get how the /99
the laws, Constitution, or System work. The System above everything else is what is truly running the show. People argued that if there were objections that votes were by state delegation, when we can just look back at 2005 and see that wasn't the case at all. People just /100
were shocked to find out that it wasn't going to work out. Now, I fully believe that most people there probably knew that the game was over and that Trump was not going to have a second term, but there were most likely several hundred that truly believed this was going to /101
happened and then they learned that Pence "betrayed" them, then all bets were off and they went absolutely nuts and probably got others whipped up in the mob mentality. The issues is, as @RyanGirdusky often says, "They're still not listening to you". The folks in Congress /102
don't get YOU and never will. Sure, there are a few folks like @mattgaetz that kinda get it, but in the end, there won't be another candidate like @realDonaldTrump. But what those who did that insane stuff the other day fail to realize is that this should NOT be about /103
this should be about the #AmericaFirst movement and all the good that can come of it. People lost sight of that and wanted to fight for the 'man' and not the 'movement'. There is a critical distinction. There has been a festering issue in the US for 30+ years and why I /104
Took so much space to try and explain it all (as best I could understand it). We are a deeply divided nation and have been since the early 90s. We have mood "swings" that make the other side go crazy, but the really troubling part is that the elected officials never /105
understand what the country truly wants. @realDonaldTrump did, but his problem has always been that he is a one man show with no support within the halls of government. Want #AmericaFirst policies? Elect people at ALL levels and not just federal levels b/c this is /106
Too many times we focus on the national level. Because of this, we don't have the infrastructure to back up someone like @realDonaldTrump. We need people at the precinct level, city or county level, and state level. All areas need to be covered and we need to become more /107
knowledgeable in all areas of the law and constitution, as well as the mechanics of how our system of government functions. Do your own research and don't just listen to people on the internet. They may be good like @tracybeanz or @PoliticalOrgy, but even they fell pray /108
to misunderstandings of how the process would work. A lot of that was passion, but some was merely because others were misleading them. I've said this many times, but the internet is both the greatest thing ever and one of the worst things ever. People have the whole of /109
human knowledge at their fingertips, but it's easy to fall victim to your own biases online. I've fallen into that trap too as so many of us have. And please, don't think I'm picking on Tracy or Frank. I love their podcasts and will continue to listen to them as they have /110
amazing content you can't find elsewhere. I highly encourage folks to seek out alternative media, but don't get sucked into some of the crazy stuff. It may make you "feel good", but if it sounds too good to be true, that's because it is. It's the same thing as Maddow /111
did to the Left day in and out for years about #RussiaHoax. It's been a long thread, but my point is to say that these issues have been with us a VERY long time and aren't likely to be solved anytime soon. Remember folks, it took the progressives 100+ years to get to /112
where we are today. We're not going to change things with just one man. It will be a slow and painstaking process with setbacks like this. Fight for our values and policies, not the man. I think @realDonaldTrump will eventually get a lot of credit for what he did for /113
our country, but we can't let our passions get the best of us. To those that committed crimes at the Capitol, you don't speak for me or the vast majority of #AmericaFirst supporters out there. We won't let you or the media hijack the movement and we certainly aren't going /114
to let Congress or anyone else forget what we are about. We may have lost the battle, but we plan to win the war at the end of the day. I want my children to have a country to be proud of and I will do all I can to make sure it stays that way. Fight, but fight smart! /END
