Madison Cawthorn's vile lies about Jan. 6 reveal a big truth about the right

[Nevilledog]

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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
When Madison Cawthorn disgustingly described the 1/6 rioters as "political prisoners," he gave voice to a widely-held idea among the GOP and the right. On some level, the 1/6 cause was a righteous one. This is central to the threat we now face. My latest:

Opinion | Madison Cawthorn’s vile lies about Jan. 6 reveal a big truth about the right
For many right wing personalities, the insurrectionists' cause has a righteous core.
washingtonpost.com
7:38 AM · Aug 31, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/31/madison-cawthorn-lies-jan-6/

Rep. Madison Cawthorn is under fire for predicting “bloodshed” if our elections “continue to be rigged” and “continue to be stolen.” The North Carolina Republican, speaking at a political event, appeared to be encouraging more violent insurrection along the lines of Jan. 6. Indeed, Cawthorn also hailed the insurrectionists as heroes, as “political prisoners.”

But as vile as that is, the subsequent clarification from Cawthorn’s spokesman captured something even more essential about today’s Trumpified right wing — about its continued ecstatic enthrallment to the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and about its broader radicalization and ongoing abandonment of democracy:

Luke Ball, a spokesman for Cawthorn, said in a statement Monday that the lawmaker was “in no way supporting or advocating for any form of violence.”

“In his comments, Congressman Cawthorn is CLEARLY advocating for violence not to occur over election integrity questions,” Ball said. “He fears others would erroneously choose that route and strongly states that election integrity issues should be resolved peacefully and never through violence.”

There you have the reigning ethos of today’s right wing laid bare: If we keep lying uncontrollably to our supporters about the totalitarian left’s repression of them, they just might resort to violence, and gosh almighty, wouldn’t that be just terrible!

*snip*

[mopinko]

1. it's the 'lost cause' drivel all over again.

[CrispyQ]

2. Notice how right wingers have to have a spokesperson followup & say they aren't advocating violence?

Only THEY are true Americans. They honestly believe this. They're full of self-righteous hate toward us. They believe they are better than the rest of us, and that gives them the right to dictate how we should live. And if we don't, they would have absolutely no problem with killing us. I have two family members who are full of hate for the left, for dems, for anyone not totally supportive of Trump. It's a little frightening to read/listen to some of what they write/say.

[Aristus]

5. Yeah. The ones who "tell it like it is" always need someone else to come along

and explain what they really meant...

[Ohioboy]

11. Yeah, just like Trump needs all his apologists to try and change Jan 6 into a tourist visit

[ancianita]

15. What you're saying is also what I hear them say about us.

Have you seen the movie The Hunt? It doesn't have high ratings but it gets a lot of right wing audience because of the murderous plotting it presents from left wing "elites."

[CrispyQ]

17. Looks pretty out there.

We might check it out, though. Thanks for the trailer.

[ancianita]

18. Yep, where huge numbers of right wing heads are at. Like it or not, somebody sees how each side

thinks about itself, clearly enough (or maybe not) to produce a movie about the both sides, calling it "satire."

[CrispyQ]

20. I'm not saying we don't have our nut jobs, but they aren't a movement.

They haven't hijacked an entire political party.

[ancianita]

21. Right. I'd never say that, either. And yet they want to "make it real." An interesting thing,

their attempts to build "reality by consensus."

[Jetheels]

19. I did see that movie recently. Some of the violence is hard to watch.

But the main character, played by Betsy Gilpin, intrigued me. I don’t think I would have finished watching the movie if not for her performance.

[blm]

3. Cawthorn told this crowd that Cooper didn't win NC.

Was he pushing for an attack on Gov Cooper in Raleigh?

[moose65]

13. Did he really say that??

Sheesh.

So Trump won NC legitimately, Tillis won NC legitimately, MadCaw won his OWN election legitimately, but Cooper "stole" the election in NC?? How the heck..........

[obamanut2012]

14. Yes, he did

Even though Cooper handily won AND the GOP challenger conceded with no problem.

[moondust]

4. Confederates.

I have to wonder if little Maddy may have been raised by Lost Cause neoconfederate parents in NC and found common cause and popularity with other kids raised like that. Mix that with radical religious self-righteousness and you got yourself the recipe for another civil war.

[George II]

6. He also lied about his potential career at Annapolis, claiming the accident "derailed"....

...his attendance. But he'd already been rejected before the accident.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

7. a devil of a man, no doubt

vile to the core.

[clementine613]

8. He was with them on 1/6, he should be locked up with them.

[ancianita]

9. Recalling from another DU'er post a while back...

"The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues,

the fact that they shar“e so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and

the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane. “


Erich Fromm, The Sane Society

[BlueJac]

10. Fuck Madison

Where do they get these assholes?

[Moostache]

16. The proper context would be Fuck Republicans...

It is endemic to their thinking now that the "big lie" must be internalized and localized to ensure that ALL of their deplorable base gets the message - "WE" can't legitimately lose because only OUR ideas are "right" and therefore - IF the election ever says we lost, it is STOLEN.

WE
OUR
RIGHT
OR STOLEN

That is the message, that is the plan, that is the platform...

No policies.
No plans.
No empathy.
No caring about the future.

Everything is NOW and OURS....nothing else matters.

[gratuitous]

12. Everyone else's election was rigged

But Cawthorn's was strictly legit. Is that it?