I know that poorly calibrated sarcasm and rhetorical questions are endemic to comments sections, and I've certainly committed both, but I didn't mean the question rhetorically. I think that "taking the country back from..." is tiresome but normal political rhetoric. It's the absorption of populism into white grievance politics that worries me: Kemp is too smart not to know that it should now be out of bounds to suggest that Biden is a usurper.
You've hit the nail on the head. The idea of treating political opponents as the enemy has permeated the Republican Party from leadership down to the local level and even among the staff at a congressman's district office. If you are unwilling to unequivocally defend the legitimacy of Biden's presidency, no matter what words you use, and make no mistake that's Kemp's implicit message, then you are no longer committed to the norms and practices of our constitutional order. Likewise, if you make noises about pardoning the J6 defendants, no matter what words you use, and make no mistake that's what Ron DeSantis did, you can no longer be counted on to defend our judicial system and the rule of law.
And, finally, where do you expect this kind of rhetoric to lead?
I know that poorly calibrated sarcasm and rhetorical questions are endemic to comments sections, and I've certainly committed both, but I didn't mean the question rhetorically. I think that "taking the country back from..." is tiresome but normal political rhetoric. It's the absorption of populism into white grievance politics that worries me: Kemp is too smart not to know that it should now be out of bounds to suggest that Biden is a usurper.
You've hit the nail on the head. The idea of treating political opponents as the enemy has permeated the Republican Party from leadership down to the local level and even among the staff at a congressman's district office. If you are unwilling to unequivocally defend the legitimacy of Biden's presidency, no matter what words you use, and make no mistake that's Kemp's implicit message, then you are no longer committed to the norms and practices of our constitutional order. Likewise, if you make noises about pardoning the J6 defendants, no matter what words you use, and make no mistake that's what Ron DeSantis did, you can no longer be counted on to defend our judicial system and the rule of law.
The second January 6th coup me thinks