Watching the impeachment hearings today I agree with the gentleman from Wisconsin,  A Republican. He is right. Most of the people at the Trump rally on Jan 6 were protesters who did not invade the Capital and who fear what a Joe Biden government will do versus a Trump win. The problem is WHAT do they fear and WHY? Just listen to Hannity, Ingraham, Dobbs, Limbaugh some members of Congress etc. and we are told that the Democrats are a bunch of commies who want a totalitarian dictatorship and remove all freedoms from the American people. The Democrats will take everyone’s guns, etc etc. These should be obvious lies but as they are repeated over and over again on places like Fox news and now Newsmax and all over the internet they are believed. That President has stated the same lies as the truth AND continues to attack the electoral process saying he won the election when he did not. He has built a house of lies and now it is falling in upon him. He has himself to blame.

Meanwhile the Democrats have a dilemma. They have a bigger base than Trump and that base wants action taken. It’s not just Trump that has a voter base.  AND do they just let slide the obvious seriousness of what Trump and his followers have done? Should there not be consequences? Trump has gotten away with so much that past norms are no longer today’s norms. They may be right that the only way to correct the rot is face it head on and impeach. The problem America faces is places like Fox STILL throw out attacks and lies that do not help the situation. The divide is still encouraged by the media – both right and left. BUT they are not equal because the right wing media is the one telling the vast majority of the exaggerations and outright lies. NO the USA is not going to become a communist state. No the borders are not going to be wide open, no guns are not going to be taken away and the second amendment is not going to be ended. Freedom is not going to end. China is not going to take over America. However what might happen is more healthcare options, focus on climate change, better covid response, respect for our allies and a host of things that do not amount to a dramatic change in the life us Americans have been living for so long. All this talk of “radicle socialist” plots are just right wing bullshit that have as much truth to them as that the election was stolen.

The real tragedy of America – and perhaps the world – is that bullshit is so easy to foster and people believe some pretty crazy things. No matter what we do – who is right and who is wrong – we are stuck in that reality.