The events at the U.S Capitol building on January 6, 2021, should be sickening to every single American. I posted my initial disgust in the moment on my social media pages, but a long form breakdown and rebuke of those involved and those who have enabled these traitors, is necessary. Days like Wednesday, are what I have feared from far-right, white supremacists groups for a long time, especially since President Trump took office.
Wednesday was the culmination of everything the Republican party has been dog whistling and enabling since they nominated Barry Goldwater as the Presidential nominee in 1964. Trump was the match lit this White grievance, radical republican sect, on fire, after a decade of turning the dogwhistle racism of Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan, into a bullhorn. If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying close enough attention. Follow actual historians on your socials (start with Kevin M. Kruse) and stop watching Tucker Carlson.
The Day
What started as a protest turned into an attack on Democracy itself. President Trump was the last person to speak to the mob before they marched on the Capitol, something which he encouraged them to do . Judging on the comments from the mob after they stormed the Capitol, they were expecting Trump to be with them during the overthrow of Democracy. This day was, quite literally, an attempt to recreate Caesar marching into Rome to dissolve the Senate and not unlike Mussolini marching on Rome, or Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch .
Upon getting to the steps of the Capitol, they overwhelmed a purposefully undermanned Capitol police force, and forced both chambers of Congress and the Vice President to be evacuated to secure locations. Some of the Capitol police force can be seen welcoming in the insurrectionists and taking selfies with them. Those members of the Capitol force actually trying to keep people out and protect Democracy, were met with violence. One Police office was killed by the mob after he was smashed over the head with a fire extinguisher. Clearly, these rioters had no intention of peace when they went to the Capitol.
Inside the Capitol, they ransacked offices, stealing numerous things and compromising our national security. The amount of sensitive information that was unsecured during this event is impossible to quantify. Domestic and foreign enemies of the United States may have been able to access sensitive information that puts our lives at risk and risks the lives of our fighting men and women overseas. Some had more than just vandalism on their mind.
The man above has zip ties and is climbing through the balcony of one of the chambers. Another angle of the photo shows a weapon holstered on his right hip, as well as pepper spray. The mob erected gallows outside. It’s easy to assume that he was going to take hostages. Truly an enemy of the state.
They weren’t just going after lawmakers during their insurrection, but the media as well. One NYT journalist was beaten and had her press credential taken away by the mob while she was trying to shelter in place. They also carved “Murder the Media” into a door. Bombs were found in different locations around the Capitol. Another journalist from the AP was taken by the mob while outside the Capitol. Nobody bears more responsibility to the violence vs the Media than Trump.
Additionally, live bombs were found outside the Capitol planted by the mob. They were never there to peacefully protest, they were there to overthrow our Democracy and install Trump as the dictator.
The Fascists at Fault
This was a coordinated coup attempt by Donald Trump. There is no way around it. For months, before and after the election, him and his radical enablers in congress like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, have been spreading dangerous lies and conspiracy theories about the integrity of the November election. The Guardian has a great timeline of the incitement by these traitors. These conspiracy theories, parroted by the far right media outlets like Fox News, OAN and Newsmax, have been thoroughly debunked by state officials and have been thrown out of court by judges all around the country for lack of evidence. Trump, Hawley, Cruz and the others, knowingly spreading this nonsense, gave the mob the excuse to believe that the election was actually stolen. This all being a part of Trump’s strategy to remain in office. It was an organized coup and the reason all the living former Secretaries of Defense penned a letter earlier in the week, assuring that the election was over and the military plays no role in the dispute. When the rioters were overwhelming the Capitol police, calls for the national guard fell on deaf ears. Trump is in charge of the DC national guard and refused to send any help until it was too late. Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, Majority leader McConnell and Minority leaders Schumer and McCarthy had to go around Trump to the acting Secretary of Defense, in order to have it mobilized. All while under lock down.
Luckily, democracy prevailed late into the night and into the early morning as Congress completed its ministerial role of counting the electoral college votes and certifying the election for Joe Biden. Trump conceded in a video that seemed extremely coerced and scripted (He went right back to himself on Friday by tweeting more inflammatory rhetoric to his violent mob of supporters). However, incalculable damage is still being done by the radical, authoritarian Republicans in the House and Senate.
Despite having a fascist mob threaten their lives, 147 Republican members of congress still objected to certifying the election results. These 147 are traitors to our country and everything that it stands for. They do not care about the will of the people or the rule of law. Some were scared straight and dropped their objection, but they are hardly a profile in courage. They need to accept culpability for the attack on our democracy and work with Democrats to have the 147 traitors removed from their elected offices. The leader of this group is Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. Already, Hawley is being condemned by former supporters and private enterprise for his refusal to accept the rule of law. Condemnation from people and companies is not enough. Everyone that participated in the breach of the Capitol and enabled them by spreading conspiracy theories, needs to be brought to justice.
The Way Forward
Any attempt to move on, that doesn’t involve President Trump, his enablers in congress, and the murderous thugs that stormed the Capitol ending up in a jail cell for a long time, is wholly inadequate. We simply cannot make the same mistakes past generations have made with Presidents who abuse their powers. Trump has been emboldened by getting acquitted in his impeachment trial, which was due to an action he felt emboldened to do because of the zero consequences he faced when the Mueller report came out. The Democratic members of the House have drafted impeachment articles to be expedited to the Senate. If the Republican Senators actually had any spine or principles, they would be unanimous in their vote to remove Trump from office. They aren’t. The GOP is already falling in line and moving for “healing” and “unity” even after the President’s supporters threatened their lives. There will be no healing or moving on unless Trump is brought to justice. This article, from the aforementioned Kruse, lays out the case for why Trump’s removal/prosecution for crimes committed during his presidency, is the only way to ensure our backslide into fascism is stopped. Nixon was let off the hook for Watergate and Reagan was let off the hook for Iran-Contra. These two things are why we have Trump, who thinks he is above the law. If he is not prosecuted, convicted and sentenced, the next “Trump” is almost a guarantee to occur, sooner rather than later. Trump’s general incompetence and disinterest in the job is the only thing that “saved” us this time around.
There’s more history to consider as well. Darker history. I mentioned the Beer Hall Putsch earlier, where Hitler tried and fail to take over the German government in Munich in 1923. He was arrested and did jail time, but upon his release, he adjusted his strategy and got the Nazis duly elected. We all know where that went. For this reason, the enablers in congress must be thrown out of the chamber and barred from holding elected offices in the US. We have already seen a traitor congressmen from Florida blame leftist groups for the attack, a clear and dangerous historical parallel to Hitler blaming communists for the Reichstag fire. Here’s another republican congresswomen saying “Hitler was right…”. Additionally, some of the insurrectionists were members of state legislatures from around the country. These people are dangerous and a threat to the rule of law.
Sending these criminals to prison for attacking our democracy is the only thing that will save it and restore our lost standing in the world as a beacon of freedom.
What we Can/Need to do and Other Notes
We all have an obligation to be better, to prevent this from happening again. Search out the Truth and promote the Truth.
If you consume any right wing media at all (Fox, Newsmax, OAN, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones etc…) immediately stop. Do not, under any circumstance watch these people. They are how these rioters have been radicalized. They promote racist conspiracy theories (like Obama’s birth certificate, migrant caravans, George Soros etc…) and have been the number one distributors of the election fraud conspiracy theory. If you equate the New York Times and CNN or MSNBC to Fox News or any of those other “publications” you are extremely wrong. You may disagree with the politics of their editorial boards but they aren’t intentionally misleading with conspiracy theories! You want to “both sides” arguments about corporate corruption, it’s fair (only kinda, don’t get too excited) but in terms of Truth, the right wing media system is an insult to honesty.
Social media is not exempt to the spread of misinformation as well. If anything, it is the fastest way these conspiracy theories spread. The platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit etc…) have done next to nothing to prevent violence from being organized on their platforms. Worse, their computer run algorithms enhance the violent extremist groups that people otherwise would not locate and join. If they will not stop the extremists from having the microphone most of the time, we must pressure our elected officials to regulate them. Spare me the first amendment pearl clutching. Inciting violence is not protected under the first amendment and these social media companies must be held accountable. The only reason I use Facebook is to publish this (liberal) blog and share other, non-fascist content to cut through all the alt-right conspiracy madness that gets trafficked and promoted on that hellscape. One of the reasons why the Republican party is so radical is because their voters have been poisoned by the far-right, Q-Anon, conspiracy theories that regularly circulate on these sites.
Like most things American, there was an obvious racism element involved Wednesday as well. This can’t be ignored. You have to call it as you see it when it comes to obviously racist behavior/coverage. Part of “healing” and “moving forward” involves reflection and coming to terms with the many demons in our society and history. Racism is one of them and Wednesday was the best example of white privilege you could ever come across. An almost entirely white mob was allowed to storm the U.S. Capitol while all summer we had to watch a mostly black, peaceful crowd, be beaten and gassed all over the country. There’s data to back up that police are more likely to use violent force vs Black demonstrators than white demonstrators. Wednesday was an unbelievable failure by Capitol Police and Racism had a something to do with it. If you cannot accept the Truth of racism in America, you are complicit in these attacks and anything else moving forward that happens to hurt our democracy. Racism exists to keep certain groups of people from participating in democracy, therefore, democracy cannot be fully functioning until we fix it by rethinking many elements of our society, especially around policing, real-estate and investment.
The amount of Republican party members that willfully spread misinformation and engage in the racist dog-whistle rhetoric is a dangerous amount. Any politician, at any level, that does not condemn the rioters and the President and his enablers, is not worthy of office. Do not, under any circumstances, vote for these people. They are enemies of our democracy and would burn it all down for a chance at unilateral power (ex. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, almost all House GOP members and anyone with the last name Trump).
For decades, the Republican party has been trying to scare you with words like “socialism” and stories of illegal immigrants all the while passing laws to disenfranchise people, concentrate wealth within their corporate donors to leave working people behind, and packing courts to take away civil liberties and undo social services. Wednesday was almost the endgame. The decades long distracting from the actual authoritarian problem came to roost and we survived, barely. Look, I understand people have different politics. This is not normal politics. This isn’t about taxes, the deficit, gun control, abortion, spending, etc… . This is about the survival of the right to debate those things at the very least. At worst, this is about preventing more genocide (more because of colonialism, slavery and manifest destiny already happened) on American soil if these groups continue to be enabled and allowed to run amok.
It’s time to stop being a bystander to the downfall of democracy. Democracy cannot exist with bystanders. Demand true, democratic reforms to our system, be anti-racist, and speak the Truth.
She's Worth It 