Sam Goldman, Paul Street and Anthony DiMaggio discuss the continuing impact of the Trump coup attempt that seemed to culminate with the physical assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The House special committee's report was released in the final days of 2022 with the recommendation that the now Republican-controlled Congress bar Trump from ever holding office again, as well as be criminally prosecuted. Neither outcome is likely as the events of the first week back in session show the GOP is still completely in thrall to the cult of Trump, whether via supposed "moderates" like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kevin McCarthy or "extremists" like Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert.
Anthony DiMaggio is an Associate Professor of political science at Lehigh University and author of Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here. Read his writings at Counterpunch and Salon. Paul Street is on editorial board of RefuseFascism.org and the author of This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America. Read his latest writings on Substack including "Keep Down the Fascism Detectors: Elise Stefanik, the New York Times, and the Appeasement by Deletion of Fascism."
Recommended reading:
The shutdown caucus really wins: The House power grab was always bigger than Kevin McCarthy
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Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown