Some say the Republican Party has gone nuts. In reality, they’ve simply reached the endpoint toward which they’ve been moving for 62 years: fascism.
Republican politicians since Barry Goldwater’s 1960 campaign have trash-talked “big government” in the United States. Like Reagan’s assertions that cutting taxes on rich people would “trickle down” benefits to poor people, or his claim that destroying labor unions would increase take-home pay for working people, this one’s just another lie.
Since the 1980s, in fact, the GOP has been the ultimate “big government” party. And now we’re learning that Republicans in Congress were, just three days before Joe Biden was to be sworn in as president, calling for the ultimate big government power: martial law to prevent Biden‘s inauguration.
The Big Lie isn’t just that Trump had an election stolen from him: the GOP has been running a longer con, preparing the ground for Trump, for three generations.
When they started, it was just another grift. But now it has built a strong foundation for martial law and fascism in the United States should another Trumpy Republican win the White House.
The GOP’s proclaimed opposition to “big government” was a lie then, and it’s a lie now. They’re quite happy to both expand and use government, so long as it’s used to benefit themselves and their rich friends.
Small government was never the goal of the Republican Party or the conservative movement. It was always all about raw political power and the wealth that comes with it.