russiagate was a deranged propaganda campaign unleashed by the dem establishment and the liberal mediasphere to ward off any serious self-reflection on their grotesque corruption that paved the way for trump, but as ever republicans take the derangement to a whole other level

hillary and leading dem politicians did question the legitimacy of trump's win, but it was not an officially enforced position. obama did not say the election was illegitimate and attempt to prevent trump from taking office. imagine the shitstorm that would've unleashed

and there was always a fundamental contradiction underlying it which the russiagaters never acknowledged: if trump was indeed an illegitimately elected russian agent, why would they vote to hand him more powers like with the renewal of the patriot act or a bigger defense budget?

why did they stand up and applaud him at the state of the union when he repeated genocidal imperialist warmongering rhetoric about the US' official enemies? why did they send him their well wishes when he got the rona? that's not how you react to a russian double agent

the entire thing was a pathetic con to keep the core dem base from doing any introspection, but it did not become the overarching project of the dem party. compare that to the republicans and "stop the steal": trump, their president, is the one constantly pushing this line

and not only that, he went so far as to incite a deranged mob of his followers to storm the capitol. again, just imagine if obama had kept saying that trump stole the election, then told his followers to assemble for a "stop the steal" rally and they stormed the capitol

it would become a pathological obsession of the entire professional media class, right-wing to liberal, and they would endlessly talk about how the democratic party is evil stalinist maoist genocidal anti-democratic. they would have crucified him and the party for it

a 70 year old ben shapiro would still be doing youtube shows about "the day democracy died, killed by the kenyan maoist fascist". so my point is: take what trump did and hang this around the republican party's neck and strangle that fucking beast with it. mercilessly

of course, democrats will never do this. nancy pelosi was already wishy-washy on impeachment and had to be pushed on it. other dem party leaders are only tepidly calling for this or that person to be censured. biden comes out with this sicko shit: https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1347913769276461064

and the reason for that is simple: if the republican party is dead, the bogeyman constantly invoked to legitimize democrats' neoliberal ideology dies with it. the specter of the mythical "moderate republican voter" disappears, and you become accountable for your corruption

politically the storming of the capitol was a massive gift to democrats, and what they will do with it reveals what they really are. will they use it to expand already over-expansive anti-terrorism laws and strengthen the carceral state, or will they use it to strangle the GOP?

in order to do the latter, you have to adopt and disseminate the narrative that the entire republican party machinery and right-wing mediasphere was responsible for this - not just this or that senator or media figure - and delegitimize them as deranged violent conspiracists

it is an additional virtue that that narrative happens to be true: it is not just hawley and ted cruz who are to blame, as is now being said by dems. the entire republican party aided and abetted this cancer for decades, as chomsky notes

and not just the GOP, also the right-wing mediasphere, as chomsky discusses here. and again, remember that democrats are not blameless in this. the underlying social conditions that have led to this are created by both wings of the business party

just so you get a sense of how deeply implicated the dem party establishment is in the ever-increasing shift to the right by republicans: biden personally helped elect a republican in the trump era in a very right race, and no one even flinched https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1324158185448607745

and check out @OsitaNwanevu's excellent writing on how democrats have to treat republicans as the enemies they are, rather than placating them so they can be used as a bogeyman during elections

https://newrepublic.com/article/160864/democrats-response-abolish-the-gop
https://newrepublic.com/article/160385/democrats-maddening-cowardice-carrying-biden-era https://twitter.com/OsitaNwanevu/status/1349108327154929664