Donald the Menace
President Donald Trump thinks democracy has to be measured by the size of campaign rally size. He thinks that the “will of the people” can be either in ballot boxes, or through popular mob and vigilantism, which is exactly the Nazi model. The Nazis won election the first time, but stayed in power through violence thereafter.
Trump’s enablers are as bad. They failed to understand the gravity of storming the US Capitol, last assaulted over two centuries ago. They tried to explain it away with whataboutism (what about looting and riots). But looting and riots happen frequently and don’t stain history or democracy. In April 1968, Americans angry over killing of MLK ravaged DC so hard that LBJ had to call in the National Guard to protect federal buildings. A few remember those riots, but everyone will remember this week’s attack on the Capitol.
Trump’s enablers also tried the tired justification of third-party provocateurs (Antifa, BLM) as actual attackers of Congress. But the profiles of the arrested show majority was White Supremacy Trump supporters, many of whom were caught on video wearing Auschwitz and 6MWE (killing 6 Million Jews Weren’t Enough).
Thankfully, some Republican opportunists proved to be smart enough and patriotic enough to stand up to Trump. By insisting on holding the congressional certification session that same night, democracy showed Trump it was much bigger than him and his Brown Shirts (a Nazi paramilitary organization whose methods of violent intimidation played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power).
Evidence of Trump’s instigation and possible legal liability scared him, and he quickly threw his cult under the bus. But like is his style, he thinks he is like teflon and nothing sticks on him. He denounced the attack, but still promised a comeback, saying this was just the beginning. If this was just the beginning, I don’t want to see the end.
Anyone and everyone who tries to “put in context” the attack on US capitol, to justify it by pointing at imaginary election fraud (until this minute, Trump has not produced a single evidence of election fraud that could stand before a court of law) or past looting and riot, is committing an unethical act and weakening the US democracy. This is beyond politics. This is about the future of the republic.
America survived this assault from Trump and his Brown Shirts, but Americans should never take their democracy or republic for granted. A republic lives as long as its citizens are willing to keep it away from their partisanship and politicking. If they drag it into their divisions, the republic will never be able to stand again.
