Las Vegas Newspaper Edit. Board Struggling to Identify Republicans Not An Active Threat To Democracy

[appalachiablue]

- Trump at rally in Reno, Nevada in Jan. 2016.
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- 'Las Vegas newspaper editorial board: 'We are struggling to identify' Republicans 'who are not an active threat' to democracy,' AlterNet, May 18, 2022.

On Tuesday, May 17, the Big Lie and the “Stop the Steal” movement enjoyed a major victory when Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano — a far-right Christian nationalist and QAnon ally — won the 2022 GOP gubernatorial nomination in the Keystone State. Mastriano has been a forceful supporter of the claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, but he is hardly alone in that regard. From Pennsylvania to the southwestern swing state of Nevada, the Big Lie has become a litmus test in the Trumpified GOP — and the Las Vegas Sun’s editorial board, in a biting editorial published on May 15, poses the question:

Are there any Republicans left who are willing to stand up for democracy?

The answer to that question is that yes, some right-wing Republicans are willing to aggressively stand up for democracy — in the U.S. House of Representatives, for example, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois have been blistering critics of the Big Lie. But Kinzinger isn’t seeking reelection, and Cheney will be gone from the House in 2023 if she loses a GOP congressional primary in Wyoming. Cheney and Kinzinger are the exception, not the norm, in the MAGA-oriented, increasingly authoritarian GOP of 2022.

The Sun’s editorial board focuses heavily on Nevada politics, but its message is relevant whether one lives in Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida or Maine.

“No one knows better than Nevadans when it’s time to put our cards on the table,” the Sun’s editorial board writes. “The editorial board, and Nevadans as a whole, are facing an agonizing problem. We have endorsed Republicans in the past and might do so again in the future. Yet as we survey the field of Republican candidates across the state, we are struggling to identify those who are not an active threat to American democracy or the institutions of government that have sustained our republic for 250 years. Those are the stakes here for the GOP. For Nevada. For our voters.”

The Sun’s editorial board goes on to describe the “violent insurrection” of January 6, 2021 and the vicious assault on the U.S. Capitol Building as “one of the darkest days in U.S. history” — arguing that the Big Lie is just as toxic now as it was then. Since the insurrection,” the Sun’s editorial board warns, “Republican leadership across the nation has worked to disenfranchise voters, allow themselves to defy the will of voters outright and to allow partisan interference in the vote count…. (Nevada) gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert was actually at the Capitol that day, spinning unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud and accusing those Republicans who believe the vote was legitimate of being ‘RINOs (Republicans in Name Only)’ who should be removed from the party.”...

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/big-lie-2657346338/

[CrispyQ]

1. IMO, most repubs, if told to believe the election was stolen,

they will believe the election was stolen. It's the way they are.

I have some family/acquaintances who are repub & I'm sure they think of themselves as moderate repubs. They voted for Trump but I wouldn't call them trumpers like the neighbor behind me, but they are no longer moderate, either. Some of them have told me that they honestly believe there were too many election irregularities for the 2020 election to be legitimate. When I ask them if we were able to influence the election to give Biden a win, why did we let Georgia get down to a nail-biting race? Why didn't we give ourselves a solid majority in the senate? I reminded them of the 65 or so lawsuits that Trump and crew lost, and crickets. They are brainwashed fools & won't know what they voted against until it's gone. It's hard for me to think kindly of them, even ones I've been fond of for a long time.

I'm sure there are articles out there on the difference between liberal & conservative brains. I should read one.

[Probatim]

2. Rs want to be lead. They want leaders and heroes.

It's easier to be told what to do, think, and feel than to experience it yourself.

The combination of poor education, lack of imagination, and too much religion is a deadly combination for the rest of us.

[appalachiablue]

4. All of that, a disaster growing for decades as planned.

[appalachiablue]

3. So many are deeply brainwashed & may never change. Losers

that refuse to learn or accept the truth. They're aiding the destruction of our democracy and causing misery and hell for Americans. It burns.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. K&R