Frankly, I don’t know what to write. I’m stunned! January 6, 2021, will go down in infamy as the day that America lost the high ground and with it the last of its innocence. I vacillate between anger and embarrassment. What do I say; what can I say? The Trump incited storming of the Capitol was unfathomable.
All of this has become too personal for me. The things I believed in have been violated. The comfort of predictability has been taken away by a mob mentality that seeks to destroy our traditions, our civility, our decency, and our long held belief in constitutional and democratic government. I have been struggling to make sense of what’s been happening.
I feel as if I’ve been violated. It hurts. I have many friends and some family members who voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020. Most have long been close friends, good people whom I’ve respected and loved. It pains me that they did not see that Trump was a flawed person unsuitable to be our president. Contempt for the Democrats is no excuse to elect such a man period.
During these past four years, I have continually reached out to these people seeking answers and with one notable exception have been rebuffed. I have yet to hear the others say to me that they were sorry for their vote, or at least, say that they had not signed up for such disgraceful and dangerous behavior by the president. During this time they have remained silent or, at best, offered a feint in the direction that all was not right in the White House. Most were smug and defiant.
I’m ashamed for all of us
USA TODAY shares practically the same views, as do I. Our local Florida Today published an editorial attacking FL-8 Congressman Bill Posey for being an enabler and a supporter. Other news agencies and publications, along with numerous organizations, have condemned Trump–and his supporters for the first time. The political arena is no longer a forum for discussion of competing ideas, it has become an arena for the mindless and the mindful to engage in violence. My anger must be greater than yours because I have requested my Trump supporting “friends” to unfriend me and have deleted any identifiable Trump supporters from my contacts list. I feel no loss. The actions of the GOP, Trump, and the idiots who assaulted the Capitol yesterday are reprehensible, and should not be forgiven or forgotten. It was/is TREASON, and those who support Trump are beneath contempt! Sorry to be so explicit, but my anger runs deep!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/01/07/trump-enemy-democracy-impeach-him-or-charge-him-column/6573678002/
The two-party system is an anomaly, especially in modern, utterly complex societies. In natural sciences an unexplainable anomaly causes acute crisis. Just look at another two-party country, Great Britain.
So why not split the parties, at least to four new ones. Coalitions mean that you have to humble yourself to be able to work together, even in the future. Not just by dismissing people.
After watching CNN breaking news for hours I was sure I did not see the US I know, and still respect. Says a friend from Finland.
Carl who would be the arbiter of how the parties would be split? How would the ideas be parsed out? Would it be something like a commissioner deciding which crops to grow?
I’ve been thinking about your comments Carl. You make a good point; perhaps, the traditional two-party approach here does not work any more. I have always thought that the two-party system was the “genius” of American politics because it has worked to keep our politics in the center and eschewed the extremes. This, apparently, is not happening today. In the past our two parties were essentially coalitions made up of competing forces that had to work together thus moderating things. And our short-lived third parties frequently put forth viable ideas that ultimately were incorporated into the major parties. What we see today is that the parties are becoming more and more ideological with contempt for opposing ideas of any kind.
I must say, however, I have always been suspect of coalition governments because they frequently dilute the power to drift toward anarchy. Lot to think about here.
Is what happened in Washington more grievous than what happened in Portland? Probably not to the families and business bearing the damage. That “expression of a deep longstanding cultural discontent that we as American must address if we are to ever heal the deep wounds and bring light to the darkness from which our country was born” went on for months possible incited by the Mayor’s pronouncement that “It’s just property.” I’m not sure the Capitol event is worse than the destruction of a family dry cleaner. At least in Washington they were engaging the responsible parties.
Speaking of parties, there’s no discussion of competing ideas because the R&Ds stifle, at every level, any real competition. The lengths to which they go to stop new thoughts and voices are both unbelievable and unimaginable to those not close to those issues. Instead their brightest and best are heavily invested in how they can finagle to impose their objectives on others. Who believes that concerned citizens from around the country poured almost a Billion dollars into the Georgia Senatorial races so Georgia could have some really good representation?
That happened because “they,” whomever they might be Republican and Democrat alike, needed the votes to legitimize their use of force and coercion to achieve their goals. If it can be made a law then it must be OK. Right? I mean it was discussed in civil debate.
The entire tenuous American project is simply an insane hope for individuals to live in freedom. Without individual freedom, the right to control your life and property, America is not different from any empire that has ever existed. If you don’t control how you live your life and what you do with your property you are a slave. Generally speaking being a slave to a Pharaoh, Emperor, King, or Tsar has fallen out of favor. But we have a hard time dealing with the tyranny of the majority. Didn’t that French fellow studying democracy in America in the early 1800’s observe that abuse of the individual’s rights by the majority would determine how long America lasts? The average life span of empires is about 350 years. Wonder what odds Vegas would put on another hundred?
Of course we could simple vote to declare war on the decline of America. It could be a cabinet level position. With funding commensurate to the importance of the issue to every American. Staffed by committed lifelong public servants just doing their jobs from field offices across the country. Among the people. Close to where they need to be to really impact the issues.
I’m embarrassed to say I don’t recall the exact language, but wasn’t there and earlier kerfuffle and the notion of George quartering his troops mentioned as a real irritant?
I am shocked that this could happen at our Capitol .
Where were the security guards, police or National Guards?
This was a coup to overthrow legitimate election results.
I am as embarrassed and sad as you are my friend!
Thanks for your enlightening blogs over the many months.
Love you!
‘It needed to happen’: Trump supporters defiant after Capitol attack, plan to do it again for Biden’s inauguration
Trevor Hughes
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Jalen McAllister said the insurrection “needed to happen.” Michel Mullen said lawmakers should be afraid of people like him. And Olivia Durlester is calling for more action against the government.
A day after armed rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and forced Congress to halt deliberations, participants and attendees at Wednesday’s violent occupation of the U.S. Capitol said they still support President Donald Trump and believe they did nothing wrong. They claim they’re law-abiding citizens who needed to assault police officers to make their political point.
Racial-justice critics said that unrepentant attitude is just one more example of the white privilege that permitted hundreds of pro-Trump rioters to stream into the Capitol largely unfettered, while Black Lives Matter protesters have been beaten and arrested en masse for far less.
Mullen said he wishes rioters had stayed inside the Capitol longer than a few hours. Mullen, his wife and their three infant daughters drove nearly 3,000 miles in an RV from Washington state to participate. Rinsing tear gas off his fingers on Wednesday evening, Mullen said he wanted to participate to show politicians they should fear the public.
A protester screams “Freedom” inside the Senate chamber after the U.S. Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 06, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
“I think it scares the heck out of some people that on a drop of a hat, we can all show up. It should scare them,” said Mullen, who owns a drain-clearing business. Mullen said authorities allowed rioters into the Capitol building in what he called an effort to temporarily pacify them: “We are having our country stolen from us and we can’t do anything about it.”
While the vast majority of participants were peaceful, Wednesday’s rally included thousands of people wearing shirts bearing incendiary, anti-government rhetoric, including some that said “MAGA CIVIL WAR” and the date, Jan. 6, 2021. Others carried Confederate flags, nooses and made outright threats of violence toward the nation’s elected government, including President-elect Joe Biden.
Many said they hoped their very presence would intimidate lawmakers into altering the course of the 202 presidential election, an effort that failed and even prompted some Republicans to withdraw their objections to the election certification. But other Republicans responded to the pressure: 68 Republicans initially objected to Biden’s Arizona win, but that nearby doubled to 127 after rioters left and Congress resumed session, according to media reports.
Many participants said they wanted Congress to “Stop the Steal,” a phrase they believed meant forcing elected officials to recognize Trump as president regardless of how many votes Biden got. Looking up at the occupied Capitol building, McAllister, who traveled from Indiana cast the day’s events as a battle of good versus evil.
“It’s a beautiful feeling,” he said. “It needed to happen.”
Durlester, 66, of Menifee, California, who said she was sprayed with chemical irritant during the Capitol occupation, said the risk was worth it. “This nation needs more, not less of this,” she said.
Trump praised his supporters as “very special” and told them, “We love you!” but also condemned the violence.
Speaking near the Washington Monument before the riot began, Trump incited the crowd to storm the Capitol, and thousands immediately began streaming that way, quickly overwhelming a small force of police officers, tearing down barricades and scaling the stone walls to enter the building.
Some carried banners or signs with the word “TREASON” on them — and cheered that the punishment for treason is usually execution. Others cited a quote often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson: “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
While the illegal occupation drew condemnation from many mainstream Republicans, anti-government activists aligned with Trump wanted more action from the rioters. Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher who became a far-right hero during a 2014 standoff with federal agents, posted on Facebook that rioters didn’t go far enough. Bundy and his supporters have repeatedly called for armed insurrection against the government.
“You can’t clean the swamp by standing off at a distance and smelling it,” Bundy wrote. “President Trump had hundreds of thousands of people and he pointed the way– pointed towards Congress and nodded his head go get the job done. We the People did clear the chambers of Congress and 100,000 should have spent the night in the halls and 100,000 should have protected them.”
Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, to whom Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, dismissed critics of violence.
“There’s a lot of people calling for the end of violence. There’s a lot of conservatives on social media who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable regardless of the circumstances,” he said Thursday. “I am glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual Tea Party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn’t feel that way.”
Chicago Police Union President John Catanzara, who backs Trump, told WBEZ that rioters acted “out of frustration” and excused their behavior. Catanzara said it was “beyond ignorant” to call the rioters treasonous. At least a dozen Capitol police officers were hurt by the mob after being attacked with metal pipes and chemical irritants.
Some of Wednesday’s rioters compared themselves favorably to Black Lives Matter protesters, arguing that since they didn’t set anything on fire, damage any cars or loot any private businesses, they were morally superior — even while discussing an armed overthrow of the legitimate government, which could be prosecuted as either treason or sedition. They also rejected suggestions that their behavior in any way confirmed the fears of extremism experts who had warned about election-related violence.
“It is just an illustration that even when white folks commit an act of terror, they are sent the message that this country is on their side,” said Rashad Robinson, president of the online-focused civil rights group Color Of Change. “They have been able to feel completely comfortable because they believe that they own it, that it’s theirs, that, of course, they have the right.”
Robinson said the rioters who broke into the Capitol are inextricably tied to white supremacist movements, fostered by the notion that they are somehow immune to the consequences of staging an armed rebellion in the nation’s capital while Black people get beaten and arrested during peaceful protests.
“These are not sophisticated people with deep intelligence expertise. They were planning and plotting this right out in the open,” Robinson said. “And the fact that they could do it right in the open illustrates a level of privilege and confidence and hubris in feeling like you have a right to do whatever you want without consequence. They live in a world with different rules.”
Biden on Thursday condemned both the rioters and their treatment at the hands of Capitol police, who he said clearly treated them differently than if they had been Black.
“Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America. Do not represent who we are. What we’re seeing are a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness,” Biden said Wednesday. “This is not dissent. It’s disorder, it’s chaos, it borders on sedition. And it must end now.”
But experts say that’s unlikely, given how successful the Stop the Steal participants see Wednesday’s events. Already they’re boasting online about overrunning the Capitol and making plans to disrupt Biden’s inauguration.
“It did not succeed this time, but the danger from even a failed coup is to be taken seriously, setting the stage for them to come back sooner or later to re-seize power – with or without Trump,” the leftwing protest group Refuse Fascism said in a statement. “It leaves a bloc of elected officials who view and act as if the Biden administration is illegitimate and an armed street-fighting force ‘on call’ to dominate the public square.”
Contributing: Will Carless, Ryan Miller
To Robert:
do we know in my country about the problems of coalitions!
Was also thinking how GB messed up its politics and economics with Brexit. It started from the pure fight of power inside both of the Two Parties. For an impoverished, insular, ex-colonial power the cooperation with the rest of Europe was less important than the egos of the leaders of the two solid blocks of dinosaurs. Both authoritarian empires, China and Russia, always rejoice when EU shows weakness.
To Jack:
A good question, but don´t be afraid. It will hardly happen. Too many vested interests, a huge political class, fright of losing power when administrations change. Though the division exists, and in different ways always has. The centers of both parties move now towards each other, the extremes glide further away.
And QAnon speaks. Also in my country.
And I constantly seem to be forgetting that the US is a conglomeration of 50 very different states. Heaven help they would have their own multiparty-systems. That would look like Europe at its worst. And even here divisions run inside the parties, especially the outmoded ones, not between the parties.
Personally, I woud have great difficulties voting for the party I always have voted for, my family has voted for, the party that serves best my ideas and interests, if that party´s main candidate is a person I deeply suspect, even detest. Perhaps I would completely abstain from voting. That would not help any society still calling itself democratic