The Manatee-Sarasota area has many connections to the horrific scene of insurrection in Washington DC yesterday. Want to see? Buckle up for this thread: /1

The Manatee GOP expressed support for Josh Hawley’s objections to certification of the electoral college vote. /2
Josh Hawley’s home-state newspaper says Hawley has blood on his hands for a “Capitol coup attempt.” This is who the Manatee GOP cheered on. /3

https://t.co/ZVU6WcxTjg
Florida GOP Vice Chair & Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler was at the protest, as described in this @HeraldTribune article. /4

https://t.co/Bpgh2FrSPb
The protest was led by the same people connected to Ziegler who were filming outside the Vern Buchanan town hall at the Van Wezel in Sarasota in 2017, namely Dustin Stockton. Stockton was also part of Steve Bannon's border wall group. /5

https://t.co/NbOxVqbtO4
Florida GOP Chair & State Senator Joe Gruters applauds seditious voices challenging the election results & transfer of power. /6
Several Sarasota-Manatee locals are affiliated with the Council for National Policy, a secretive radical right hub organization. cc: @anelsona /7

https://t.co/MhMrLth4r3
Longboat Key resident Charlie Kirk, a CNP member, urged Mike Pence to overturn the election results. /8

https://t.co/Mpz5nBYXdB
Longboat Key resident Charlie Kirk, a CNP member, & his team sent 80+ buses to the March on January 6. /9
Women for Trump Florida, whose leader is on the Board of Governors for the Council for National Policy, sent a busload to the protest in Washington DC. /10
The leader of Women for Trump Florida has called for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a way to impose martial law. /11
The leader of Women for Trump Florida has retweeted pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood’s criticism of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as corrupt. /12
Women for Trump Florida has endorsed a number of local officeholders. Political candidates such as Tommy Gregory & Fiona McFarland sought or touted their endorsement. /13

More from Government

This is a good piece on fissures within the GOP but I think it mischaracterizes the Trump presidency as “populist” & repeats a story about how conservatives & the GOP expelled the far-right in the mid-1960s that is actually far more complicated. /1

I don’t think the sharp opposition between “hard-edge populism” & “conservative orthodoxy” holds. Many of the Trump administration’s achievements were boilerplate conservatism. Its own website trumpets things like “massive deregulation,” tax cuts, etc. /2

https://t.co/N97v85Bb79


The claim that Buckley and “key GOP politicians banded together to marginalize anti-Communist extremism and conspiracy-mongering” of the JBS has been widely repeated lately but the history is more complicated. /3


This tweet by @ThePlumLineGS citing a paper by @sam_rosenfeld and @daschloz on the "porous" boundary between conservatives, the GOP and the far-right is relevant in this context.


This is a separate point but I find it interesting that Gaetz, like Roy Moore did In his failed Senate campaign, disses McConnell. What are their actual policy differences? MM supported taking health care away from millions, a tax cut for the rich, conservative judges, etc. /5

You May Also Like