Pretty much everyone outside of #exvangelical survivors of the NAR, experts on Christian Nationalism, experts on fascism and the far-right, survivors of genocide and exit counselors severely underestimated the threat TFG posed And they still underestimate the threat now 1/x
Pretty much anyone who'd personally experienced Christian Nationalism or fascism, or who was intimately familiar, was throwing up the alarm bells--not just re Trump but the *entire GOP's messaging*, we all saw what was coming and desperately had tried to warn people 2/x
because we were the exact populations that did not have the luxury of participating in the Great American Delusion that fascism, and particularly religio-fascism, can't happen here. (And Americans really do have a spectacular blind spot in regards to that, as an aside; 3/x
even as the warning signs were about as subtle as a brick starting in September of the coming coup, there were many who said "oh the system will hold" (even as we had pointed out it had been compromised, far before Trump even, starting all the way back in the Clinton years) 4/x
and on January 6th literally *every* supposedly guardrail we had failed, and it was only the quick thinking of a few Capitol Policemen and Congressmen (and, thankfully, Dan Quayle convincing Mike Pence to see reason) and at least some military that kept 5/x
the US from going *full* Republic of Gilead...and those same Americans who dismissed those of us who warned a Trump presidency, *ANY* GOP Presidency could be the end of not only civil rights but representational democracy itself...we were told we were worrywarts panicking, 6/x
that the system would somehow hold...and we could see, ourselves, how literally *every* check and balance had been systematically undone, has STILL been systematically undone in many cases. Americans still don't realize how close we came to losing democracy. 7/x
Americans still do not, by and large, realize just how close we STILL are to losing representational democracy itself, STILL do not realize how many of the very systems that were supposed to prevent such a thing have not only been subverted but frankly weaponized 8/x
to the goal of a Christian Nationalist coup-de-etat where representational democracy would be a thing of the past, much less civil rights. (Dobbs, of note, was probably THE first wake-up call that really hit home to people just HOW much the guardrails have been scuttled.) 9/x
And again, this has gone on *long before Trump*. This is a process that, at its core, has literally gone on since at least 1971, and arguably since *at least* the Southern Strategy and the split of the Dixiecrats, and in some aspects literally since 1871 10/x
#exvangelical survivors of Christian Nationalism, and researchers on Christian Nationalism, have tried to warn now for close to half a century that the GOP was being taken over from within by people not only hostile to the civil rights era, but to democracy itself. 11/x
I myself wrote on this 17 years ago, before even Sarah Palin made her bid for VP, specifically noting how since 1971 there has been a very specific plan to take over the GOP from within, and then the country: https://t.co/quNQ9jgQPE 12/x
dailykos.com/stories/2006/1…
And re Trump himself, exit counselors and forensic psychologists (who are familiar with malignant narcissism and psychology of cult leaders) were sounding major alarms, noting that the movement had all the characteristics of a dangerous cult of personality 13/x
and in what was a very unusual move, something like 30+ mental health professionals actually made public statements to the effect that Trump was a malignant narcissist, letting him be President was likely to be seriously damaging or even fatal to democracy in the US 14/x
and at least one of those psychologists ultimately got fired from the research department at their university for following what they felt was a duty to warn about a dangerous individual. Holocaust survivors, survivors of the Guatemalan and Rwandan genocides, 15/x
and survivors of the Balkan wars (including the genocides) all also were raising the alarm very early, noting the similarity of statements in Trump speeches to things that leaders had said before the bloodbaths ensued, the dehumanizing, the depersonalizing 16/x
and again they were ignored, as were experts on historical genocides and experts on fascist movements, all told that there were supposedly checks and balances, that the system would self-correct. Until it didn't. January 6th should have been the wakeup call: 17/x
We have a serious issue in that a violent, religio-fascist movement has almost completely taken over one of two major political parties in the US, is even now working on mechanisms to further damage any possible corrective measures to prevent a coup, 18/x
have arguably subverted the Supreme Court of the United States (which has historically served as the major brake-check) including having a justice whose wife is a likely participant in the coup themselves, and who have a literal religious mandate 19/x
to not only destroy representational democracy, but to impose a violent religious dictatorship that would frankly make the fictional Republic of Gilead look like high tea with the Windsors in comparison https://t.co/55oNFVdFYk 20/x
dailykos.com/stories/2007/8…
The ones who had warned about Trump, of note, are all the groups of Americans who do not have the luxury of being able to pretend "it can't happen here". We've all lived it first hand. On smaller scale, or in other countries, but we've *all* lived it "happening here". 21/x
We know the signs, we know the in-group lingo they use. We've tried to be the field guides pointing out to you--despite the part of your soul that really wants to believe somehow America is special and immune--that, yes, it happened here. It's still happening here. 22/x
And to the @January6thCmte, to @POTUS, to @BarackObama, to the millions of Americans who still don't seem to want to realize just how close we are still to losing it all: For the love of God, listen to #exvangelicals and experts who have tried to WARN this is coming, 23/x
and if you don't want the America of fifty years hence to be written as a warning to the future generations much as Germany between 1933-1945 has become, please, for the love of God, act appropriately and work to get the Fifth Column out before they cause more damage 24/x
because I promise you--if you don't act, and act quickly, to remove those (by vote and by law) who are presently destroying the underpinnings of our constitutional republic, you may well not *have* a constitutional republic by 2024. Act appropriately. 25/end
