Summary: Questions from Audience regarding the attempted Coup attempt that was egged on by President Trump’s repeated rhetoric of a rigged election. This dissects police response time, and the lack of action on behalf of the President, which causes a rift in the Republican party. The rift is between those who support and Defend Trump in hopes of Running for office with the support of those who supported Trump and the Republicans who want nothing to do with them.
This is paired with the state of Georgia turning Democrat for the first time in recent history, which turns the Senate an exact 50/50 which puts voting rights legislation on the table, which will hurt the Republicans ability to suppress voting and do gerrymandering to win.
Timestamp 24:41: This is similar to the uprising in the southern states post Civil War which was heavy on White supremacy. This attacked them first and foremost by race, but also by class and gender. This led to the essential one party White Supremacist state of the South, which ruled the Southern states between 1877- the Civil rights movement in the 1960’s. This led to an uneducated South, as resources went to the few through corruption.
Timestamp 30:16
Question 1: Why are people who are not rich men Supporting Trump?
Answer 1: Demagogue's get power through the language they use with the poor and focusing on how it's not their fault that the system failed the economically failed them and they vow to fix it.
Timestamp 32:53
Question 2: What needs to happen to make Biden President?
Answer 2: Congress needs to hear and accept the electoral votes, which will likely take time as many Republican Senators plan to contest votes in swing states.
Timestamp 35:30
Question 3: What is the 25th Amendment
Answer 3: The 25th amendment was put in place to ensure government continuity in case of a problem, such as assassination or being mentally incapable to hold office. This procedure involves all parties agreeing that the transition needs to happen, and the President having the opportunity to defend himself. This would be followed by a vote, which may or may not result in impeachment.
Timestamp 41:43
Question 4: Will the Republican party split?
Answer 4: Yes, they cannot approve of this behavior and the split is already in progress as many do not want to be associated with the Donald Trump movement in fear of career suicide.
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Question 5: If he is impeached can he run again?
Answer 5: No, and paired with his health it is highly unlikely
Timestamp 49:36
Question 6: Is it possible to inaugurate Biden before the traditional date?
Answer 6: No, it would be against the system put in place by the framers.
Timestamp 56:24: The Republican party was under the impression that they would be able to control Trump, which is why they failed to hear witnesses in Trump’s first impeachment trial in the interest of furthering their agenda.
[From wikipedia] Richardson’s first book, The Greatest Nation of the Earth (1997), stemmed from her dissertation at Harvard University. Inspired by Eric Foner’s work on pre-Civil War Republican ideology, Richardson analyzed Republican economic policies during the war. She contended that their efforts to create an activist Federal Government during the Civil War marked a continuation of Republican free labor ideology. These policies, such as war bonds and greenbacks or the Land Grant College Act and the Homestead Act, revolutionized the role of the Federal Government in the U.S. economy. At the same time, these actions laid the groundwork for the Republican Party’s shift to Big Business after the Civil War.
In this 2001 book, Richardson "focused on the “Northern abandonment of Reconstruction.” Building on the earlier work of C. Vann Woodward, she argued that a more complete understanding of the period required appreciation of class, not only race. As Reconstruction continued into the 1870s and especially the 1880s, Republicans began to view African Americans in the South more from a class perspective and less from the perspective of race that had driven their earlier humanitarianism. In the midst of the labor struggles of the Gilded Age, Republicans came to compare “the demands of the ex-slaves for land, social services, and civil rights” to the demands of white laborers in the North. This ideological shift was the key to Republican abandonment of Reconstruction, as they chose the protection of their economic and business interests over their desire for racial equality." [From wikipedia]
In this 2007 book, "Richardson presented Reconstruction as a national event that impacted all Americans, not just those in the South. She incorporated the West into the discussion of Reconstruction as no predecessor had. Between 1865 and 1900, Americans re-imagined the role of the federal government, calling upon it to promote the well-being of its citizens. However, racism, sexism, and greed divided Americans, and the same people who increasingly benefited from government intervention—white, middle-class Americans—actively excluded African-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and organized laborers from the newfound bounties of their reconstructed nation." [from wikipedia]
In this book, published in 2010, Richardson "focused on the U.S. Army’s slaughter of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. She argued that party politics and opportunism led to Wounded Knee. After a bruising midterm election, President Benjamin Harrison needed to shore up his support. To do so, he turned to The Dakotas, where he replaced seasoned Indian agents with unqualified political allies, who incorrectly assumed that the Ghost Dance Movement presaged war. The Army responded by sending one third of its force in order to avoid spending cuts from Congress. After the event, Republicans tried to paint the massacre as a heroic battle to stifle the resurgent Democrats." [wikipedia]
In this 2014 book, Richardson "extended her study of the Republican Party into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book studied the entire life of the GOP, from its inception in the 1850s through the presidency of George W. Bush. The party’s founders united against the “slave power,” a small group of wealthy white men who controlled all three branches of government. These Republicans articulated a new vision of an America in which all hardworking men could rise. But after the Civil War, Republicans began to emulate what they originally opposed. They tied themselves to powerful bankers and industrialists, sacrificing the well-being of ordinary Americans. A similar process took place after World War II, when Republicans sought to dismantle successful New Deal policies and prop up the wealthy. However, in both cases, reformers within the party were able to return the GOP to its founding vision of equality of opportunity, first Theodore Roosevelt during the Progressive Era, and then Dwight D. Eisenhower, who enforced integration and maintained the New Deal. The Nixon and Reagan administrations have represented yet another fall from the GOP’s founding purpose. It's ironic, Richardson points out, that Republicans treated Barack Obama with an unprecedented level of disrespect, as Obama's rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in the nation embodied the vision of the original Republicans." [wikipedia]
In her most recent publication, Richardson argues "that America was founded with contradicting ideals, with the ideas of liberty, equality, and opportunity on one hand, and slavery and hierarchy on the other. United States victory in the American Civil War should have settled that tension forever, but at the same time that the Civil War was fought, Americans also started moving into the West. In the West, Americans found and expanded upon deep racial hierarchies, meaning that hierarchical values survived in American politics and culture despite the crushing defeat of the pro-slavery Confederacy. Those traditions--a rejection of democracy, an embrace of entrenched wealth, the marginalization of women and people of color--have found a home in modern conservative politics, leaving the tremendous promise of America unfulfilled." [wikipedia]
