Capitol Hill Coup (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
With this book's 355 pages of text and more pages of notes on sources plus a bibliography, David Corn has made a great contribution to understanding how the events of January 6, 2021 are not a one-off. The Republican Party leadership has been building to this end for a long time by welcoming the forebears of insurrection and by refusing to chastise the kooks, for the most part.
The author's theme is so focused on the Republican Party leaders encouraging the increasingly loud and violent people to seek safety and approval in its ranks, that he does not mention that The Grievance Boy lost the 2016 election by 3 Million votes. (He does mention the failure in the 2020 election, losing that one by 7 Million votes.)
If you are looking for an explanation of whether the recent takeover of the Republican Party by violent extremists is a new phenomenon (it's not), or if you are trying to understand whether the Party leaders actually encouraged these yahoos (they did), then you should read this book.
After reading this well-written and thoroughly researched book, I am left with a new question, a very different inquiry perhaps: What were the responses of the victims of the political fight club (as the author calls it) to the attacks of the vigilantes (as the author calls them)? And however the victims may have responded, did it have the effect of encouraging the gangs (again, as the author calls them) ultimately to commit January 6th?
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