One of the truly amazing things about the current Republican Party is the number of people who have been elected (or appointed) to powerful positions who are amazingly stupid. I’m not just talking about the individual who currently holds the title of President while someone else is actually calling the shots.
Consider this. Congresswoman Victoria Sparts of Indiana has opined that “You violated the law, you are not entitled to due process”.
Now the stupidity involved here is not the fact that the whole point of due process is to determine whether you in fact violated the law, rather than letting the state simply pronounce you guilty and impose punishment. After all, imposing a regimen where you are guilty if charged with no opportunity to prove otherwise, whether the burden of proof is on you or the state, is exactly what fascists do, and exactly what our fascists are trying to do.
No, the truly stupid part is saying it out loud, because we’re still at a stage in the transition to fascism that Republicans have to at least pretend that there’s nothing to see here and no one is taking away anyone’s rights. Really, Victoria, you need to be a little more subtle about these things. Dress it up a bit differently. Sort of like this, from the guy who represents Stonington in the Connecticut legislature:
See? Just a bit more subtle. But, give him credit, just as stupid.