Whenever a prominent Republican is accused of committing a serious crime, it's now a given that Republican allies of that crooked official will use the power of their own offices to try to sabotage the prosecution. Trump-allied House Republicans leapt immediately to demands that the prosecution hand over all their evidence when Donald Trump was indicted in New York. Multiple Republicans are currently calling for the defunding of the Justice Department as a means of thwarting special counsel Jack Smith's two felony cases against Trump.
It was only natural that some Georgia Republicans would jump to the same schemes after Trump was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury for attempting to cheat state voters outright. First by prodding election officials to change the vote totals, and afterwards by simply inventing an out-and-out fraudulent "slate" of fake state electors he and his seditionist brigade tried to present to Congress to replace the legitimate version. Everyone expected it because Republicanism is a fascist movement, and fascist movements operate from the core presumption that they are allowed to commit crimes and promote violence as long as it is in service to expanding movement power.
In Georgia, Republican State Sen. Colton Moore is now taking up the fascist mantle. Moore doesn't give a shit about a criminal conspiracy to erase an entire state presidential election. Moore is demanding that state Gov. Brian Kemp call a special session of the state House and Senate for the purposes of "reviewing" the actions of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the DA responsible for Trump's indictment.
Moore's got the routine down pat. A call to strip prosecutorial funding, a call for Trump's prosecutor to be removed from office outright, a damn “donate here” link so he can personally fundraise off the effort to thwart Trump's prosecution.
Look at me, says Moore. I want to be a co-conspirator too.
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Despite Moore's letter to Kemp, the written claim that three-fifths of lawmakers have signed his demand is purely aspirational. Moore says he's not yet gotten responses from his colleagues. That's a bit surprising; statehouse Republicans usually jump at the chance to express their support for a seditious coup. Perhaps he's simply caught them at a bad time.
Moore also does not appear to give a shit about the death threats already beginning to percolate against the Georgia citizens who participated in the grand jury and agreed Willis had presented enough evidence to justify Trump's indictment. Moore appears to be a true believer in Trump's seditious acts. It seems more likely than not that if he's asked to weigh in on those threats, he'll respond with some string of words that translate roughly into, “Well, maybe the grand jurors had it coming.” Prove us wrong, pal.
Again, this is now the most common response to the revelations of Republican crimes. Think about that. God knows our national journalists especially need to think about that. Having one of the two national parties regularly working to sabotage criminal investigations and prosecutions of party leaders and their allies is authoritarian in design. Simultaneously demanding their enemies be jailed for unproven and in some cases simply fictitious crimes pushes it into fascism.
Even if both of those words are too unpleasant to use in print, dear journalists, we ought to at least be able to agree that regular attempts to sabotage criminal prosecutions of allies amounts to organized crime. If we cannot agree that the seditionist coup-attempting mob is attempting to topple democracy, perhaps the papers could probe what it means for a national political party to regularly demand alleged criminal acts by their leaders go uninvestigated.
Where were we? Oh yes, the seditionist Moore wants to call a special session so that he and his Republican allies can defund and shutter the offices of those who dare hold Trump accountable for criminal acts. Yeah, that guy can get bent. Fundraising off your support for an attempted coup, Colton? Beyond deplorable, but right on brand.
American political parties might often seem stuck in their ways, but they can and in fact do change positions often. Joining us on this week's episode of "The Downballot" is political scientist David Karol, who tells us how and why both the Democratic and Republican parties have adjusted their views on a wide range of issues over the years. Karol offers three different models for how these transformations happen, and explains why voters often stick with their parties even after these shifts. He concludes by offering tips to activists seeking to push their parties when they're not changing fast enough.
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