Historian here, with a message for folks arguing against holding people accountable for the siege of the Capitol because "history will be the judge." We are in this mess, BECAUSE people in the past didn't hold their contemporaries accountable. Please don't repeat that mistake.

Nixon was forced out of office, but he was never held responsible for his egregious actions as President. You'll never guess what sort of precedent and example that set for the future President who most shared Nixon's moral turpitude. https://t.co/U5cNtBUvc7
In the 1970s, many "mainstream" media outlets buckled to right wing pressure & lent their platforms to gut bucket racists like James Kilpatrick & Pat Buchanan, rebranding them as "conservatives." We continue to reap the consequences of normalizing racism. https://t.co/029qQ9fXEp
Here's a thread on Pat Buchanan. In the early 90s Charles Krauthammer and Bill Buckley, staunch conservatives both, called Pat a "fascist" and an "antisemite." And yet he still got major media gigs for DECADES. https://t.co/Vmj8wuOwf6
Trump's career (and that of his family) is overstuffed with acts of white collar crime for which no one ever received more than a tiny fine as a slap on the wrist. Everyone one in NYC knew Trump was a morally bankrupt and corrupt crook. But somehow NBC still made him a star.
We had almost a century of Jim Crow from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts in 1964-5 because the nation did not hold white supremacists sufficiently accountable to the 14th Amendment.
AIDS activists who tried to hold the Reagan Administration accountable for its deadly, homophobic, inaction were called "divisive." MLK, Jr was called "divisive." Abolitionists were called "divisive." "Divisiveness" is what reactionaries call "accountability." Don't fall for it.
There's an important distinction between retribution or vengeance on one hand, and accountability on the other. Authoritarian regimes reap vengeance on their "enemies." Democracies hold citizens legally accountable for illegal actions.
Now Trump, and his authoritarian enablers, will try to tell you that there's no distinction between legal accountability and political vengeance. They will say any attempt to try Trump for crimes post January 20 "is just political retribution." Don't fall for it.
The way that a community shows that it truly believes in some important ideal is by holding accountable people who try to smash that ideal. If we believe that trying to violently steal an election by seeking to harm elected officials is wrong, then there must be consequences.
Otherwise, we can't say that as a nation we genuinely believe such things are wrong. In which case, they will just continue to happen. Because authoritarianism is an effective route to power, especially for groups that can't win over their fellow citizens with reasoned arguments.
One last detail to illustrate this point. The P**ud Buoys who were key in instigating the violence on Wednesday start every meeting with a reading from a 2001, fascist book by Pat Buchanan. Oftentimes, the past is prologue. https://t.co/sao6dCuONO
Pat Buchanan had such a big platform because we gave it to him, even though the overwhelming majority of us (even conservatives) thought his ideas were a threat to our democracy. There was no reason to put him in jail. But we didn't have to put him on PBS and MSNBC!

More from Seth Cotlar

This reminds me of a 2010 poll of Tea Party supporters in which 84% said that "the views of the people involved in the Tea Party movement generally reflect the views of most Americans." Only 20% thought Obama shared the values of most Americans.


Full polling data here. I was asked to give a talk on campus about the Tea Party in 2010, and one of my main points was that it was a weakness of the movement that it had such a delusional perception of the American people. Oops.

Anyway...the dynamic described here has been a long time coming.


That's the weird, seemingly illogical, thing about the right's culture war. They simultaneously think of themselves as speaking for the majority of Americans, AND they think that they are the saving remnant protecting a decadent society from ruin.

What squares this circle is the assumption that "the real American people" consist of straight white, rural or suburban people, & anyone not in that category doesn't really count as an American. That's how right wing culture warriors can both be the "majority," and a minority.
Rush Limbaugh will be remembered as one of the most consequential figures in the history of American conservatism, because he reflected and shaped the world view of the post-Reagan GOP base more than any other single person.


Limbaugh is also a good example of how the distinction between “respectable” conservatism and “the more radical fringe” can easily be overstated.


In 1992 George HW Bush had Rush Limbaugh open his final campaign event before Election Day.


Rush descended from a well-off and well-connected family in Missouri, but he played the role of “pissed off Joe Six Pack” really well. He’s a perfect example of “plutocratic populism.”

Limbaugh’s cruel bigotry and aura of aggrieved entitlement was a feature, not a bug. In an era of shifting social mores, Limbaugh gave his listeners permission to be a-holes and be proud about it. He perfected the schtick that would get Trump elected.

More from Legal

Absolutely fascinating thread as @jsralton & others track down the identity of key players in the Capitol Hill breach.

Including highly decorated ex-members of the military.

The double wrist ties, tasers, discarded weapons all show an intention to go much further than they got


Seems so ordinary, becoming Lieutenant Commander Brock in the US Airforce ...yet the conversion from the ordinary into the extremist will make a fascinating study for psychologists @RichardBentall


His claim that he picked up the wrist ties “someone” had dropped so he could hand them into police is laughable.

And when you think about it rather cowardly. Can’t even take responsibility for what he has done.

Who else were involved in the planning? Which mates of his?

The attention to detail in making the links is impressive.

There’s going to be a lot more doors knocked in in the next few weeks.

How high and how deep into the Trump establishment does it go.?


H/T @k8tshires for this summary from CNN

If the people involved in this insurrection succeeded where would the establishment face of the movement be?

I suspect not making the denouncements they are now that it

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