I hate to be the one to burst her bubble but they are blowing smoke up her posterior. Although a few well-educated, affluent Republicans- who are very likely most of Haines' GOP friends- believe the insurrection of 1/6/21 was a bad thing, most of them are blowing smoke up her posterior.
But for sheer overall wrongness, no one on the set could top Alyssa Farah Griffin, who a moment earlier (at 2:41) had commented
Most Americans were not comfortable with January 6. They thought it was bad, they thught it was awful. But for four years they said "guys, we are hurting. The cost of living is too high. We are concerned about the border. Yes, democracy matters. But if you can't pay your bills, it's hard to care about something as nebulous as democracy...
Yes, there are people who believe that democracy matters. They are called Democrats, and most Independents agree. The ninth question of a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted December 14-18 of 2023 asked
Which comes closer to your point of view: the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten, or too much is being made of the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 and it is time to move on?
The choices were Never be forgotten, Time to move on," and No opinion/skipped.
Fivety-five percent of repsondents opted for "never be forgotten," forty-three percent for "time to move on," and two percent were the remainder.
At the time this survey was taken, 27-29% of voters identified as Democrats, 25-28 percent as Republicans, and 40-45% as Independents. The vast majority of Democrats, probably around 90%, are likely to have selected "never be forgotten." No doubt many Independents did also, probably in a ratio approximating the overall results.
Then there are Republicans. Do the math, as Griffin and Haines did not. It is certain that a majority of Republicans, likely an overwhelming majority, went for "time to move on." And that does not include the Republicans (and a few Independents) who would have been reluctant to suggest to pollsters- whom many don't trust- that they oppose democracy.
Certainly, people did care about the border and the cost of living. However, not only is there relatively little a President can do about prices, the economy generally was better in the past election system than it was four years earlier, when Donald Trump was President, and better than it was when Ronald Reagan won easy re-election with "Morning in America." Voters did hold Democrats more than Republicans to blame for the chaotic border. However, the situation improved markedly in the last several months before the election and would have quieted further had a bill crafted on a bipartisan basispassed Congress. That was the bill to which Donald Trump responded by saying roughly "no, not on Biden's watch will we allow this to improve."
Many voters do care more about the price of eggs and gas than they do about democracy. But that's just the point. Most Republicans were fine with the attempted coup, and among the small minority which thought it was "awful," democracy (or representative democracy or democratic republic) is not a value held dear.
If that wasn't naive enough, Griffin then remarked
I aay this with due respect for Joe Biden. I didn't disagree with a word he said in that op-ed. But people are saying we have concerns about your age. He waited until August and then gave Kamala Harris this runway (shows two fingers close together) to run for President. All the warning signs ere there. They had the choice to stop Donald Trump from being inaugurated, and here we are.
I don't know whether Griffin was referring to stopping Trump's inauguration, as she literally stated, or to defeating Trump at the polls, which would at least make a little sense. Three months before the election, the AP noted
Just as soon as Biden abruptly ended his candidacy, Harris and her team worked rapidly to secure backing from the 1,976 party delegates needed to clinch the nomination in a formal roll call vote. She reached that marker at warp speed, with an Associated Press survey of delegates nationwide showing she locked down the necessary commitments a mere 32 hours after Biden’s announcement.
Harris’ nomination became official after a five-day round of
online balloting by Democratic National Convention delegates ended Monday
night, with the party saying in a statement released just before midnight that
99% of delegates casting ballots had done so for Harris. The party had long
contemplated the early virtual roll call to ensure Biden would appear on the
ballot in every state. It said it would next formally certify the vote before
holding a celebratory roll call at the party’s convention later this month in
Chicago.
It was quick, clean, and decisive. There was little bickering and much party unity, and an enthusiastic reception for the nominee at the national convention, which was a rousing success. Kamala Harris had become the nominee with little opposition, thus not having to run the gauntlet of a primary process in which any flaws would be revealed and she would have had to answer for either her earlier positions on issues or be drawn further left. Either would have been a liability in the general election campaign, and she worked feverishly and successfully to galvanize anti-Trump Republicans.
Kamala Harris was easily made the party's nominee. She then ran the campaign as she saw fit, one which probably would maximize her chance of being elected, stressing that so many Republicans were in her corner and that she would govern not as a partisan Democrat and in a fashion far less chaotic than would her opponent.
It was not enough. It was insufficient because though running a good campaign, she was a very bad candidate. It was insufficient also because, whatever Griffin's friends wanted her to hear, the vast majority of Republicans (and some Independents) were satisfied with an attempted coup. It would be nice to think otherwise, that there is sweeping, bipartisan support for democracy but, as Griffin herself would put it, "and here we are."
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