They knew what they were doing. It was a specific choice made deliberately and with intention to accomplish the overthrow of elected government.
That is why they were so confident on Jan. 6th when they continued to vote and argue against accepting the will of the people after the attack. They knew an event like that was going to occur and they expected to be able to overturn the vote in response to it. The very purpose of the mob was to give them cover to overturn. It was the 2021 edition of the Brook Brothers Riot and the Reichstag Fire, updated to include "Only The Best People".
It is also what animates their resistance to any success by the new President and Congress. This is not a political strategy based on any constructive intention. If our members in the House and Senate were not pushing them, they would do nothing in response to the COVID pandemic and its effects because their desire is to break government for and by the people. To help anyone in any kind of need at all would be to acknowledge that GOP members owe their allegiance, and their privileges, to voters, citizens and the Nation, rather than GOP dogma, patrons and sponsors.
They are incapable of doing anything constructive because that quality of decision making was rooted out of the party long ago under Gingrich and his successors. In place of wise and informed citizens they have been recruiting zealots to the cause of GOP hegemony. In place of loyalty to the Nation they have absolute obedience to GOP leaders and party dogma. Listen to them speak at any time or place and you'll hear them repeat it over and over, in all weathers and conditions, in response to every single issue.
As I said elsewhere the GOP defines toxic waste.
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