There's a Nefarious Plot Underway Around the State of the Union Address

Thom plus logo America is, today, at a point of maximum peril only seen twice before in our history

Multiple Republicans, from former NRA spokespersons and rightwing talkshow hosts, to Republican congressional candidates, to the rightwing media are speaking out, loudly, about their concern that Joe Biden has not yet held a State of the Union address.

There are so many demands and tweets that David Badash over at The New Civil Rights Movement compiled a list of just a few them in his article about this topic.

Why, suddenly, are all these right wingers demanding that all the members of the House and Senate, the Vice President and the President all gather together in the Capitol building to hear a speech right away?

Why has this suddenly become such a big issue on the right?

Why is rightwing talk radio talking about it almost nonstop?

After all, the Constitution doesn't even require the president to give such a speech: Thomas Jefferson used to submit them in writing, and he would know the Framers' intent.

And the Constitution doesn't require any particular time or date; it doesn't even require that they be done annually.

Nonetheless, the clamor for President Joe Biden to convene a Joint Session of Congress to bring all of our federally elected officials together in the Capitol building has gotten so loud that USA Today felt obligated to issue a fact check, explicitly pointing out that there is no set date or even annual requirement for a State of the Union address.

Nonetheless, right wingers are loudly complaining about the lack of a timely State of the Union address. Some suggest that Joe Biden is too weak or frail to pull it off, an apparent attempt to egg him on. Others simply lie and say that it's required in February but he's ignoring it.

So why are all these Republicans and right-wingers demanding a State of the Union address as soon as possible?

We may have gotten a clue yesterday when the acting head of the Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, told Congress that the same groups who attacked the Capitol on January 6 are very, very, very interested in the State of the Union address.

"We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6," she testified, "have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many Members as possible, with a direct nexus to the State of the Union."

The Confederacy that declared war against America in 1861 was all about using violence to enforce white supremacy. They promoted their "lost cause" fantasy for over 150 years to keep white rule in place in America, particularly across the South.

To this day, white supremacist Republican politicians fight any attempt to improve the lives of their poorest people, from opposing expanding Medicaid to opposing increases in the minimum wage, all because those efforts could benefit Black people.

I just sent off the manuscript for the next book in my hidden history series, The Hidden History of American Healthcare, and in my research found that literally every single effort to provide Americans with a national healthcare system, from the late 19th century right up to the passage of Medicare in 1965, was opposed by white southern conservatives who repeatedly and openly bragged they were against it because they didn't want any such benefit to go to Black people.

In my first book in the series, The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, I lay out how the Second Amendment was written the way it was, at the time it was, to preserve the slave patrols in Virginia and South Carolina, and the basis of much of today's "gun culture" is rooted in white rage and white fear.

As I pointed out in The Hidden History of the War On Voting, the 19th century Confederate losers and their white supremacist followers to this day fought and fight every effort to make it easier to vote so they can continue to suppress the Black vote. It's why several hundred pieces of legislation making it harder to vote have been introduced in over 30 Republican-dominated state legislatures just in the last ten weeks.

Thus, it's no coincidence that the people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th were carrying Confederate flags along with their Nazi memorabilia and T-shirts proclaiming that "6 million wasn't enough."

Americans of good conscience know that Donald Trump's MAGA movement pretty much begins and ends with white supremacy. From "build a wall" to putting brown children in cages to the "Kung flu" and the "Muslim ban," virtually everything Donald Trump and his followers have pushed flows back to trashing non-white people.

And the one legislative achievement of Trump's four years in office was a massive tax cut that almost singularly benefited the very, very rich, who are overwhelmingly white.

Black Capitol Police officers on January 6 were beaten, spit on, and repeatedly called racial slurs by the pro-Trump MAGA crowd who were trying to end America's democratic republic and replace it with white supremacist strongman rule.

The belief that only white people should hold power or wealth in the United States has been at the core of "conservative" ideology since our founding. It animated nominations for judicial candidates and senior officials throughout the Trump administration, and continues to be a primary value for the mostly white Republican Party.

Some among them want to continue the work that Tim McVeigh started of tearing down a multiracial, pluralistic America with death and violence; their project is now carried on by readers of The Turner Diaries and followers of social media conspiracy theories.

As I lay out in The Hidden History of American Oligarchy, there have been two attemps by American oligarchs to overthrow the US government and install authoritarian, white supremacist regimes in its place.

The first culminated in the Civil War; the second happened with an attempted coup against FDR that was interrupted by General Smedley Butler. The first was about 80 years after the founding of our republic; it was followed roughly 80 years later by the attempt on Roosevelt. And now here we are again, 80 years after FDR's death.

The CPAC conference in DC this weekend is celebrating Trump's Big Lie that he won the November election.

The Trump coup attempt is ongoing, while multiple Republican elected officials think they can ride this tiger safely. They are wrong.

Qanon conspiracy believers are promoting another "rally" in DC on March 4th, the date they think Donald Trump will be proclaimed "President of the World." The Trump Hotel in the nation's Capitol has already raised their room rates for that date in anticipation of a crowd.

And now Capitol Police have intelligence that some Trump followers want to use the State of the Union address to reprise their deadly January 6th attempt to assassinate America's elected officials, so they can replace them with Trump and whichever cronies he brings along with him.

America is at a point of maximum peril as the Republican Party has almost entirely embraced Trump's white supremacist ideology and is using his Big Lie to push massive voter suppression, encourage more political violence and end the American experiment.

The remaining Republicans who actually believe in American values must step forward and speak out now, or the window in time and history for their party to return to sanity may close forever.

-Thom

Originally posted on thomhartmann.medium.com.

Comments

Riverplunge's picture
Riverplunge 2 years 14 weeks ago
#1

Umm.. Nut Party?

PhilipHenderson's picture
PhilipHenderson 2 years 14 weeks ago
#2

Many of the reasonable moderate conservative Republicans have left the Party. My Republican friends do not want to have anything to do with the GOP under Trump. They get angry when people call them racists and antisemetic but you can see that racists and antisemetic people clearly see Trump as their leader. Trump has pretty much broken the Republican Party and his Party wants to violently takeover the government. This could not have happened without social media. There would be no way for these people to organize and silo themselves so that the BIG LIE is fake news to them. Republican leaders have demonized the mainstream media because the mainstream media tells the truth and Trump's Party will have nothing to do with the truth.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 2 years 14 weeks ago
#3

Is CPAC Russian for Republican? It appears the Nazi, Fascist Traitors of America have coined a new meaningless phrase to dazzle the arrogant bigots of Trumpanzia, “Cancel Culture.” What the fuck does “Cancel Culture” mean? Not a goddamn fucking thing!!

But of course Trumpanzies just go nuts for chanting meaningless phrases that have no real substance as if they are deep profound truths that can’t be questioned. The real reason they can’t be questioned is that they don’t have meaning. None! There is nothing there to question!

Therefore the Trumpanzies can go around and around in pointless circles with smug euphoric grins pasted on their faces, spouting off idiotic, meaningless catch phrases, fed to them by rightwing think tanks, enabling them to avoid any answers grounded in reality. “Fuckin’ Cancel Culture man!”

rostasi 2 years 14 weeks ago
#4

Actually, "cancel culture" is a phrase that's been used for a long time
(and is a variant of the phrase "call-out culture" that's been used even longer)
and is more of a left-leaning reference. Tho I'm not a fan of much of what it references,
it's made extra absurd by the right-wing in America by what they perceive as personal cancellation.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 2 years 14 weeks ago
#5

rostasi, thanks for the info but let’s face it, the average Trumpanzie has no idea of the meaning of “cancel culture” other than a phrase that they can squawk like a parrot instead of coming to grips with reality. And how ironic is it that the Party that embraces the slogan “cancel culture” as you defined it, is busting their asses trying to cancel the votes of millions upon millions of minority Americans, in effect canceling their rights.

Rob Lukacs's picture
Rob Lukacs 2 years 14 weeks ago
#6

Perhaps the only way to end this is to have them attack and have the marines mow them down with 50 caliber machine guns. They are enemy combatants at that point as far as I am concerned. They need to be slapped down hard, now. One reason they are so bold is they dont believe they will be stopped. They feel entitled. Its time to end them.

alis volat's picture
alis volat 2 years 14 weeks ago
#7

We used to argue that Hillary was the most prepared person for the Presidency, but I think President Biden just may have surpassed her. As a bonus, he is more likely to embrace his mistakes and improve his positions. I hope he uses his quiet authority to politely tell this crowd when and where he will address the issues in a time of pandemic. Let 'em squawk!

Boy oh boy, Far Right Bizzaro World just keeps adding layer after layer. That's how conspiracies thrive. The 4th of March is exhibit A. The ugly gold Trump statue is exhibit B; the sight of it makes me throw-up a little in my mouth. That imagery can't be lost on the Christians. Where's their Moses to slap them back to reality over the "gold calf"? He ground that sucker up, burnt it, and then made his people drink what was left in water. I'd watch that.

I took a look at bits of CPAC. I saw one panel of African Americans that I found interesting, they had a couple of good points. Ted and Don Jr were absolute jerks. The venue is covid-19 friendly (not sure if it's friendly for the virus or for the people).

Thank goodness psychopathy is not contagious, but unfortunately mass hysteria can be. The GOP is a hot mess. They are the drunks that need to regurgitate and then regroup when their head is clear in the morning. SAD!

Worn out door knobs's picture
Worn out door knobs 2 years 14 weeks ago
#9

I bet Joe Biden is going to be surprised he bombed Syria when he wakes up today.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 2 years 14 weeks ago
#10

CPAC's new slogan: Preparing For The Past

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#11

#8: Again, great references. Thanks! The face of the GOP. The platform of the GOP.

#10: GOP new bumper sticker: FUCK DEMOCRACY.

#9: So, are you projecting your own senility again? If he ever wakes up at all (Riiight -- ain't never gonna happen!), I bet Pussy Grabber is going to be surprised (or joyful) he killed hundreds and displaced thousands of our most loyal and worthy allies by conceding Syria to Russia, Iran, and Turkey -- delighting Putin, Erdogan, Hassan Rouhani, Bashar al-Assad, and ISIS, our most implacable enemy, in one fell swoop -- all to save his Trump-branded towers in Turkey.

#7: They're the drunks who keep on drinking the spiked Kool-Aid after regurgitating in the punch bowl. The throbbing pimples with "heads" will never be clear.

#6: ...metaphorically speaking. };--))

#1: "I’ve a pain in me bollox."

#4: The loser GOP is trying to "cancel" the votes of 81,283,098 true patriots.

#2: Great post! That's progress when our Republican friends with a conscience dissociate from the Trump Party. If otherwise good conservatives support a racist politician that, unfortunately, makes themselves racist both by association and by definition. They should get angry.

Despite policy differences, a healthy democracy needs opposing parties with moral fiber, stiff backbones, and a heartfelt commitment to truth and justice (sadly lacking at CPAC). How is it that we lowly citizens will go to jail lickety-split for lying before Congress yet Congressmen/women (think Republicans) can shamelessly and repeatedly stand before the American people and lie their asses off with little worry about any real consequences? Trump's base is a cult so steeped in lies that they've completely lost the ability to think rationally or to feel the normal human emotion of empathy for anyone other than themselves.

We are not a healthy democracy.

cuz's picture
cuz 2 years 14 weeks ago
#12

Thom, the State of the Union speech has nothing to do with the republicans, Nothing to do with your crazy tin-foil rantings, and everything to do with the State of Biden's mind speech. People on both sides are asking where is Joe? Even the all too forgiving media is perplexed at his lack of availability.

My money rests on the side of those who bet his handlers will keep him out of the public eye on anything more than uttering a few cognitive sentences off a teleprompter once a week. His mental decline is increasingly evident over the last year. We have a puppet regime in DC that is dangerous, to say the least. Trump was ignorant of the politics in DC and the swamp had him removed.

Biden is a frail old man who is rapidly losing his ability to construct logical sentences and is being controlled by far too many outside influencers.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#13

Cuz, the state of your mind has nothing to do with reality. Quit projecting; it's embarrassing. Are you and Doorknobs twin sisters, lovers, kindred spirits, or all three?

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#14

So much for the golden calf Moses destroyed; today's religious hypocrites are going straight to hell for worshipping a golden ass.

Worn out door knobs's picture
Worn out door knobs 2 years 14 weeks ago
#15

Thanks so much to the Mental Patience for explaining all the posts. I would've have understood them with his explanation. :)))

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#16

("would've have"? Your worn-out senility is once again on full display, Mental Patient.)

BTW, I'm just commenting on all the great posts today. You know, because this is, like, the comment section? Thom's Blog and the provided source material does the "explaining." Or can't you absorb anything longer than a few sentences?

But you're welcome. And thank you and your lover for being the perfect foils for much-needed comic relief. Keep the hits coming. }:--)))

Worn out door knobs's picture
Worn out door knobs 2 years 14 weeks ago
#17

I apologize to all mental patients. I didn't me to denigrate you by confusing you with the individual who blogs here.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#18

You shouldn't disparage yourself. Then again, maybe you should.

SueN's picture
SueN 2 years 14 weeks ago
#19

Please stop the personal attacks, folks. They reflect badly on you and I'd hate to have to ban you.

Legend 2 years 14 weeks ago
#20

Funny that people like Cuz and Doorknobs would be concerned about Biden's age and cognitive ability. We all age differently. Eating a healthy diet and maintaining physical fitness has a lot to do with the aging process. Biden is a very healthy 78 year old (turned in November) that maintains his physical fitness. Donald Trump lives off of Big Macs, french fries and for health reasons diet coke. His idea of exercise is riding in a golf cart. He is obese by all standards. He is 74 and turns 75 in June. You were fine with him for 4 years despite all of his lies and covefe. He is now the front runner for 2024 and the Republicans are all for it. Can I say hypocritical, Sue, without being offensive? Waiting for your reply.

SueN's picture
SueN 2 years 14 weeks ago
#21

Hypocritical? Moi?

Legend 2 years 14 weeks ago
#22

No, I want to call them hypocritical but want to know if I was allowed to say that. or that it might be too offensive.

Snowflake2005's picture
Snowflake2005 2 years 14 weeks ago
#23

As I understand it, this is the first year CPAC has held its annual conference somewhere other than Washington, D.C.

It's in Orlando, FL, precisely because FL is one of very few states that permit immense in-person gatherings during the pandemic. That's Florida, home of some of the worst spikes in the pandemic.

A whole bunch of Republican Congressmen & Senators who never before were concerned about the pandemic suddenly stated it as the reason for having to vote ahead by proxy. Instead of quarantining, they flew to the CPAC national meeting.

News reports tell of countless attendees unwilling to wear masks. Such a mega-gathering of the largely maskless is where numerous Republican Senators & U. S. Representatives are, having left written proxy votes, using the excuse of being unable to be at the U. S. Capitol due to the pandemic.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 2 years 14 weeks ago
#24

Mea culpa. I'm sorry that certain individuals might be offended when Trumpian/Republican hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty are exposed and will try harder to attack the bankrupt ideologies and repugnant lies themselves rather than those who may knowingly or unknowingly spread them. After all, we are all flawed human beings, some more than others, and can be easily subjected to victimization by the horribly destructive and pervasive right-wing brainwash when that's the dirty filter through which we insist on viewing the world.

SueN's picture
SueN 2 years 14 weeks ago
#25

You can say that a statement is hypocritical, or a public figure, but not a fellow member.

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