You might notice Never Trumpers trying to pretend history began in 2016. Two MSNBC guests in one day, Alex Wagner and Nikole Hanna Jones, point out that this is what Republicans have always been.
January 28, 2021

On my podcast with Driftglass The Professional Left, we have pointed out an Easter Egg to look for whenever a representative of The Lincoln Project appears on TV.

"Four years ago." "Five years ago." They always begin the problem with the Republican Party with Trump. Before that is the never-mention-it time.

So it was shocking to hear two MSNBC guests in one day, Wednesday, call that myth out. The Republicans have ALWAYS been the party of white supremacy, at least since 1964's Civil Rights Act when the parties switched names and ideologies.

Joy-Ann Reid hosted the 1619 Project's Nikole Hanna Jones (video above):

NIKOLE HANNA JONES: I just have to say, this is not new in the Republican Party. I have only ever known in my entire life this Republican Party. Ronald Reagan starts his campaign on states' rights. It's where three civil rights workers were murdered fighting for Black people to have voting rights in Mississippi. This is the party of Mitch McConnell posing in front of a confederate flag. It's a party of birtherism, of the Muslim ban, of accusing Barack Obama of being a Muslim. It's the party of voter suppression. So I'm somewhat -- I won't say shocked. But it is interesting to watch all the people trying to now separate themselves from that element of the Republican Party that's been the only Republican Party I have ever known and I'm 44 years old. There's always been an acceptance of that fringe element, of that white resentment politics. And that's not saying every Republican is racist. But they certainly were willing to overlook racism or get in bed with racists to pass whatever larger agenda they were interested in. We shouldn't be surprised about being here. If you look back at the 1960s, the KKK and the White Citizen's Council were after the same thing. The White Citizen's Council got upset when the KKK would get so violent that it would no longer allow that plausible deniability. That's where we are right now. What we saw on January 6th, what Donald Trump has done, he's removed that veneer of respectability from a party that has long signaled white resentment. So this is what we have now. And this is a party that is not sought to expand democracy, that, again, I'm 44 years old, as long as I can remember, sought to restrict democracy, sought to pass voter suppression laws, sought to make voting more difficult for Black people, Brown people. Now this distancing and saying, oh, now we see this party trying to overturn Black voters, that happened under Obama, that happened in 2016, that happened with Shelby [County v. Holder]. This is not new.

And later Wednesday night, Lawrence O'Donnell hosted Alex Wagner of Showtime's "The Circus", asked how Republican Senators might respond to House member Marjorie Taylor-Greene's obvious violent rhetoric:

ALEX WAGNER: We're talking about a rhetorical example versus the real-world example of a seditionist mob trying to come to put bullets in the head of lawmakers that they actually witnessed! And they're not doing anything about it. As far as it concerns comments Greene made on social media, I imagine they will obfuscate, deny, and avoid to whatever degree they can. The fact of the matter is this is the Republican Party. We keep pretending like Marjorie Taylor Greene is an outlier. That President Trump is an outlier. I would add an addendum. I don't think it began with Trump. I think Trump is the hothouse flower that bloomed in the fetid environment of conspiracy, of lies, of racism, of violence. I mean, this -- we remember the things that were said about President Obama when he was in office. Trump is an expression. He is the harvest of those seeds that were sown nearly a decade ago. And now this -- I mean, 85% to 91% of the Republican Party would pull the lever again for Donald Trump. And the outliers are the Mitt Romneys. I am not sure they have a place in the Republican Party anymore. The takeover, if you look at this moment, is complete.

Our podcast also has a tongue-in-cheek catch phrase: No Fair Remembering Stuff!

Mainstream Bush dead-enders like The Lincoln Project would like you to forget the time before Trump. Trump is the result of Republican behavior, 1964-2015. Never forget.

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