For the Autocratic GOP, "Fear Does the Business" and Threat is Normalized - RUTH BEN-GHIAT
Biden spoke out about the deadly toll of silence in the face of threat because we have reached a crisis point in America on this issue. In keeping with the GOP's transformation into an autocratic party, making threats is now a normal activity for Republican politicians and their supporters, to the extent that threatening others is now "interwoven with the process of government," in historian Joanne Freeman's words.
That threat figured so prominently in the drama around choosing a House Speaker is just the latest example. Threats to members of Congress are up 400% since 2017, as per a May 2023 Capitol Police study—2017 marking the ascent to power of Donald Trump, a man with decades of experience in the art of threat. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger feels that his department must be transformed into a "protective agency" to adequately deal with the volume of threats, and yet silence has largely prevailed on this subject.
Indeed, GOP Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA) made news when they took the rare step of publicly denouncing threats made to them and their families after they refused to support Trump's proxy Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for House Speaker.
https://lucid.substack.com/p/for-the-autocratic-gop-fear-does
= new reply since forum marked as read
