So, an interesting new trend: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/nation-world/new-poll-republicans-sour-on-path-for-us/507-8b3ce73e-357a-4ae5-9854-9147855b20d9?tbref=hp
I'll highlight the point that I find a bit interesting.
I find the shift really interesting, and the potential reason for it REALLY interesting.
We have a thread on here referring to the GOP as a "Trumpist death cult." And there's something to that. There is a strong thread of nihilism running through the movement; it's a "blow it all up," "inflict maximum pain on the other" kind of movement. They're posing for smiling pictures at the "Alligator Alcatraz" sign, we all know that "the cruelty is the point," that sort of thing. And, it's easy to fall into that worldview when you see yourself as The Main Character. These are things you/your side DOES, they are NOT things that are done to you.
But the problem with "blowing it all up" (economy, education, all institutions, etc.), is that you live in the thing that you are blowing up. So when that bomb of chaos that you've been cheering on blows up, you end up looking like this:
And a parallel problem is with the cruelty, and the casually inflammatory attacks on "the other" (invaders, vermin, democrats are terrorists who must be eliminated), etc. is that it lights a fuse of violence. Those of us NOT in MAGA land have seen it and sounded the alarm about it for years, particularly after signature events done in furtherance of the cause: El Paso, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Colorado Springs, the Hortmans, and on and on. But not only does MAGA not care, they actually liked it. Because functionally, all of the political violence was taking out "the other" or their enemies. Why should they mind, the people they hate are getting what they deserve!
But again....the "political violence" bomb is NOT a carefully controlled explosion. It is grenades repeatedly tossed into society as a whole. And, eventually, the shrapnel from those grenades blows back on the people cheering them on. Create an atmosphere that incites increasing political violence? Well, they're fine with it.....so long as only "the other/the enemy" is the victim. But....when the storm of violence comes to them, and one of their own....well, that changes things.
I am not taking the position that Charlie Kirk's murder was a good thing. Not at all. I have never, ever wanted our country to descend into political violence -- FFS, I've spent a decade being a cassandra about "fucking stop it, people, because this is the INEVITABLE outcome of where we're headed!" I didn't want El Paso to happen, I didn't want Charlie Kirk's murder to happen. None of it. Instead, what I'm observing is that my observation and warning that "this ends in bloodshed" includes a footnote of "and you can't perfectly control where and how it goes, and it WILL get messy."
And perhaps what the polling above is showing that once the fantasy world that some MAGAs have constructed -- where they can spew rage, hate, and anger, inciting and inflicting pain and violence willy-nilly -- turns into reality, which is messy, ugly, and involves bloodshed and death....some of them may lose their stomach for it. It's all fun and games when we get to hate brown people and laugh about them being shackled, and not care (or only care in the most cursory of fashions) when they get slaughtered in a Wal-Mart because hey, they're invaders. It's quite different when you realize that the beast of "stochastic terrorist violence" ultimately turns on you and yours, and can't be controlled, and that beast causes some awful, messy shit, in a society that you really, really want to be clean and pretty and well-functioning. The ultimate lesson being that if you think society is too messy and chaotic, the solution isn't to inject hyper-chaos into the system; it's to do the long, slow, and hard work of cleaning up the mess and chaos.
MAYBE some of these people are seeing that, across the board, "make everything more chaotic" is both counterproductive as a whole, and causes harm and pain to the very people who have cheered it on. I dunno. Hoping that a group of people realize that "cause pain and blow everything up" is a terrible idea because we all live here together is an act of pure hopefulness, which y'all know ain't my bag. But, I'm observing that COULD be part of what's reflected in this polling.
Or fuck, I dunno, the guy at the end asks the right question: Is Kirk the straw that breaks the camel's back or sets off a powder keg? Thus far, the evidence we're seeing is that it set off a powder keg (one that MAGA has long-had primed, and they were eagerly waiting for the opportunity to light its fuse). But that's the near-term, and certainly the action that the admin is taking. But long-term....what are we going to see? Which direction are the American people - or at least this important subset of them - going to go?
Stay tuned to find out. But not to ABC or a Tegna station.