I just can't look away from American politics

I probably spend an unconscionable amount of time staring open-mouthed at the train-wreck of American politics. Most Canadians do. It's partly because, living next door to a giant, it's always good to know when it might decide to roll over. But, as much as anything, it's a complete inability to look away from a train-wreck in progress, however depressing the spectacle may be.

So it is that I note that a new poll shows US Republicans are leaning even further towards Donald Trump and ConspiracyTheoryLand, nearly three years after that other train-wreck, the January 6th Picnic in the Park. I say that because that's how a majority of Republicans seem to view that flirtation with chaos. For example, in the poll, only 18% of Republicans believe the evidence of their own eyes that the people who entered the Capitol were "mostly violent", down from 26% two years earlier. 

Yes, even fewer of them are inclined to worry about such an event now than previously. It's hard to know if these people genuinely believe this, or if they are deliberately trying to mislead the polls because they want to see Trump back in power, for whatever reasons of their own. I can't believe that all of these people are just stupid or so suggestible that they will lap up any old guff presented to them by a weird guy in a red cap. Some of them at least must have voted for George Bush at some point, fir example. Hell, some of them must have voted for Barack Obama!

Either way, it seems that 72% of the Republicans polled believe that "too much is being made" of the storming of the Capitol, and only 24% believe that it was an "attack on democracy that should never be forgotten". When asked whether they thought that Joe Biden's 2020 election victory was "legitimate", only 31% of them did (or were willing to admit to pollsters that they did), down from 39% two years ago.

Make of all that what you will. It really does seem like the right-wing of America, young and old, are content to live in some kind of fantasy world. They are willing to block out what the rest of the world is telling them so that they can get what they want (whether that be fewer Latino faces around them, a few more dollars in their pockets, an ability to ignore what is going on in the rest of the world, or a complete stop to progress, accountability and sustainability - who knows what they want or why they want it?)

It's a train-wreck alright, but I just can't look away.