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1. Been excited about @JoeNBC's sustained convo today about @KBAndersen's new book Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America which explains how the Republican Party radicalized OVER ECONOMICS over the past 30 years. It was launched w the radical tax cuts in Reagan's presidency, but
2. as the GOP evolved through the 90s & 2000s they became dogmatic about their economic philosophy- until it became a radical litmus test/position the party followed even when conditions screamed for different policy. It was a MIRACLE the party acted to stabilize the economy at
3. at the end of 2008 when it was crashing down around us (though they just barely did & some didn't and that's bc it was before the Great Purges of 2010,2012, & 2014). America doesn't know the hit job the GOP did on the American economy as they dogmatically pursued tax cuts to
4. the exclusion of everything else while denying any policy that could grow wages or improve the economic lives of the bottom 80% aside from the 2 or 3 times Ds managed to squeeze through policy while in charge (minimum wage increase in 2007-which was the 1st time in a decade
5. and now, of course, its been another decade. It's actually a miracle wages (all wages bc when the min wage is artificially low it affects all the wages above it, that's how you end up w $10 per hr EMTs & teachers) aren't even more out of wack w inflation. As @JoeNBC points out
6. the GOP hyper-sensationalizes everything via their media systems & their campaign/political rhetoric to stave off reforms & it has worked beautifully. No matter how moderate/mainstream the reform or the Dem proposing it, the whole of Rep Party calls it socialism & denounces
7. it. What this has done is it has radicalized R voters. Keep in mind, within those 1000s of rioters many people were motivated by the core belief that Donald Trump actually won the election & somehow the entire political system, including GOP election officers, judges, & SCOTUS
8. justices are willing to conspire against him and steal the election to give it to Biden. That is obviously a stupid lie. It's bad enough coming from the president of the United States. But, in my opinion, what turns it into an insurrection-sized mob breaking into the Capitol
9. attack, maybe even kill, our legislators is the fact that the Rep Party backed him up on this lie. Not just in the beginning, which was pretty bad. But even after all the recounts & investigations. THAT's why 40% of Americans erroneously think Trump won the election. And we
10. MUST fix that problem. We cannot move onto healing until we force the Rep Party to tell the truth about the election and tell their own voters that Joe Biden absolutely won and free, fair, and fraud-free election. Today, one of Trump's biggest enablers & an anti-democracy
11. advocate @GOPLeader is meeting w the GOP caucus. Will they come out of this meeting STILL lying to their voters about the election? If so, the media MUST hold them accountable bc what they are doing is trying to end democracy. That is what it should be covered as.
