Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that “society” has to “strap up and decide we’re going to push back against” the dangerous Republican Party.
Guest anchor Katie Phang said, “Election workers are increasing security around polling places before the midterms. Is this the new reality in America now where we have to have armed guards for people to exercise their right to vote?”
Wilson said, “I think we may end up in that position at some point. There is an increasing movement on the far-right to intimidate voters, whether it’s on the legal side in the beginning by raising the standards and by eliminating drop boxes or early voting, eliminating absentee ballots. And they’re going to end up with the big MAGA guys from Meal Team Six standing just outside that line to intimidate people.”
Phang asked, “Some experts think this rhetoric is more symbolic, calling it a cold Civil War, measured by mistrust and intractable polarization, rather than a hot war with conflict. Is that what we’re seeing now? It already feels uncomfortable hot to me.”
Wilson said, “January 6th struck me as a hot God damn day. What Stewart Rhodes said himself, we should have brought more rifles. These people are ready to go. It doesn’t matter if a tiny fraction believe this. It matters that the rest of the Republican establishment doesn’t care. They are silent. They will not speak out. They will not stand up. When Mitch McConnell is threatened by the former president this weekend, he cowers in fear. He doesn’t stand up. They have decided that the cancer inside the party is something that they can live with long enough to seize power again. They hope the alligator will eat them last, if I may mix my metaphors. This is a dangerous party with a dangerous belief that power alone justifies any excuse to get there. And it does not. And is it going to be something where we pay the price as a country and a society unless we strap up and decide we’re going to push back against these people? It’s got to happen sooner than later.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN