A Right Wing Cannot Flap Alone, or, Donald Trump Screwed the Putsch

[A Black Falcon]

They may still be there, but it feels pretty seriously different.  They're getting banned from social media, if they were involved with the capitol riot/coup attempt they're getting arrested, the orange one is gone from twitter and is mostly being quiet, etc.  Things are seemingly returning to normal, except a "normal" where a huge percentage of the population believes more in Donald Trump than they do democracy and will continue to support candidates saying the most extreme things they can think of.  So yeah, things are definitely not normal.

For instance, if this was still 50 years ago, Trump would be about to be convicted in the currently ongoing second impeachment trial of former President Trump.  But it is 2020, so he's most likely about to be let off because the Republicans are much more interested in appeasing their insane conspiracy theory-loving base than they are in defending democracy.  So despite the extremely strong case the House managers (prosecution) have made, I can't possibly see the Senate Republicans removing Trump, even though he literally tried to have them killed by sending an armed mob to attack them and then refusing to allow any support be sent to stop the mob, after which they broke into the Senate chamber.

So, I don't think it will matter very much how lame and half-baked the no-god lawyers defending Trump are, they have this won and know it.  Our democracy is now run by partisanship more so than it is belief in democratic values. 

Still, that we did win, that the Democrats have a rare trifecta -- only the third of my life, and the other two only lasted two years each -- and that we replaced our worst, most destructive president ever with the president with the most knowledge about the operation of government of anyone who has ever held the office means that, for now, there is hope.  The Dems had better pass good things.  Biden is doing a fantastic job with executive orders, but some things need legislation...

But to return to the first subject, if this new tone on social media that has cracked down on the kind of free spread of lies and misinformation continues then that would be great for this nation.  I hope it does.  Deplatforming works.