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On Ginni Thomas, the Big Lie, and the Far-Right
I admit I have not paid that much attention to this story. To put it mildly, I have been busy with events in Europe. However, this is connected. It is part of the active Russian measures, combined with internal dynamics that have placed us in danger. Thomas working with Mark Meadows to overthrow a legal election is quite on brand. It is also very serious.
First, let’s stipulate a few things. The American far-right does not recognize the right of Democrats to exercise any political power. This road to political hell started under Newt Gingrich. As Speaker, he did things that lay the ground for the present moment.
Among other measures, he forbade his members from socializing with their Democratic counterparts, because in war you do not consort with the enemy. This is a man who conceives of politics as combat.
But few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trump’s rise. During his two decades in Congress, he pioneered a style of partisan combat — replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories, and strategic obstructionism — that poisoned America’s political culture and plunged Washington into permanent dysfunction. Gingrich’s career can perhaps be best understood as a grand exercise in devolution — an effort to strip American politics of the civilizing traits it had…