The Republican Party has turned its ship directly into the fascistic sun it has been sailing toward for the last half century, with many “rising” GOP stars directly implicated in the events leading up to, during, and after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C.
On Monday, New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher tweeted out a new low that Sen. josh Hawley, and by extension his Republican Party, reached in their craven grubbing for raising money off of misery and sedition. It’s a coffee mug, with an image of Hawley. It’s the image at the top of this story, taken when Hawley pumped his fist in support of the soon-to-be insurrectionists. Hawley would subsequently go inside the Capitol and vote against certification of the 2020 election results. The sell on the mug, like Donald Trump Jr.’s sell, is that by being a real POS, Hawley is triggering the liberals. In fact, the advertisement for it promises that if you want to start a fight with a “woke friend or family member,” you can be sure to trigger them by spending your money on fascism.
Sen. Hawley’s merchandising site is not much different than any GOP operative’s online store these days. Baseball caps and T-shirts and sweatshirts with hollow messages like “Big Tech Sucks,” and “Back the Blue,” with Blue Lives Matter American flag designs. This, somehow, is a lot lower than even that.
Only $20 to join fascism (for now)
The “Show Me Strong White Coffee Mug,” seen above, is both pathetic and gross. Back on Jan. 6, 2021, The Kansas City Star, the Missouri senator’s hometown newspaper, made its front page headline a clear denouncement of Hawley’s activities, writing: “Sen. Josh Hawley has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt.”
That is still true as of February 2022. The Jan. 6 committee continues its investigations and even the Republicans on the committee seem to believe that evidence will bring a reckoning to Hawley. We can only hope that real justice, real law and order, will prevail. But, of course, Hawley and his friends are hoping that the standard white supremacist form of justice practices in our country will lead fascists like him to a promised land where the majority of human beings are subjugated to his ego.
