The Insurrublicans have a strategy--make the world a hellscape, so that anything they do seems normal in comparison.
They are relying on making the world a meaner place in order to make everything they do seem more normal. It is so important right now to be respectful and kind all the time, going out of our way to make the world a nicer place for everyone, to contrast normalcy with the evil they are doing.
For example, in a world where everyone is busy minding their own business and worried and not talking to each other, if you walk by someone being unlawfully harassed or detained, you are less likely to speak up. But in a world where everyone is having a good time, talking, and feeling connected, it is harder for them to disrespect people without others standing up for them.
This works with the environment too. If you get people used to living in a degraded environment, they will be less likely to notice when more degradation occurs. If we make every place where people live a nice place to live, and NIMBYs become NIABYs (Not in Anyone's Backyard), then we not only don't subject low income communities to environmental harm but we also even out property values (if everywhere is nice, then why pay more to live in a "nice" place and get away from a "bad" place?). As Wendell Berry said, "There are no unsacred places. There are only sacred places and desecrated places."
The Republicans are also using distraction to get what they really want. Here's a list of distractions, things they probably don't care that much about:
- Renaming geographic features
- Taking over other countries
- Tariffs and trade
And here are the things they really want that we need to pay more attention to:
- Enriching themselves and their buddies at government and taxpayer and environmental expense (via many approaches, the biggest one right now appears to be tax cuts for the wealthy paid by trashing everything, as well as increasing defense spending)
- Deporting people who aren't white so they can achieve their racist dream
- Helping themselves and other dictators like Putin control as much of the world as possible
- Destroying democracy and keeping Americans divided so they stay in power (via many approaches, controlling media to take advantage of the people they manipulate being a big one--like an abusive spouse, making things worse while saying opposite things that 3 in 10 people believe seems like it keeps those people loyal no matter how bad they make things for them)
- Staying out of jail
