What a Time to Be Alive
I’m going to do my best to talk about what’s happened in the last 24 hours. There will be volumes of books written about it so I know I will not do it justice. But I will try.
Like a lot of people, I spent yesterday glued to the television. I watched our fellow citizens attempt a bloody coup in a feeble attempt to overthrow the government. I laughed so much that I exhausted myself and had to take a nap. I was not laughing from joy or because I agreed with what the insurrectionists were doing. I was laughing because of hubris and irony. The arsonists got burned. Five years of absurdity led to the most absurd day in our history. Blue lives matter people punching cops. The “law & order” party encouraging sedition that led to vandalizing and breaking into public property. Why was it funny to me? Because it was utterly and entirely predictable.
For half a decade, we’ve been warning what a Trump presidency would bring about. Yesterday was the culmination of all those warnings. What would you call what happened on the grounds of our Capitol other than a treasonous rebellion?
That’s the flag of the traitorous Confederacy being paraded around our Capitol. Not enough proof for you that this was intended to be the start of some new civil war? How about the fact that they had shirts printed up before they ever got there declaring it so:
Outside the building, the traitors built a gallows. Even if they didn’t intend to use it (dubious at best) it is still a HELL of a symbol to bring to what is supposed to be a “peaceful” protest. Think of the effort involved to bring all that wood and the time spent to build the damn thing.
I’ve heard a few people say that people got carried away and this wasn’t a planned thing. No? Let’s go to earlier in the day when several speakers, including Trump, called for violence.
It’s easy to see why our fellow citizens were ginned up for violence. They genuinely believe that the election was stolen and that massive fraud took place. And look, I’m not excusing their moronic, ignorant behavior. But the responsibility for what happened yesterday belongs to all of us. This wasn’t a foreign force that invaded our capital. They were Americans like you and me. Well, not exactly like you and me.
See, whenever we protested, which there was a lot of this summer, we were met with a different kind of police presence. The MAGA traitors? They were literally allowed to storm the building. Here’s a video of the Capital Police opening the gates and moving barricades so they could:
Once inside, the cops happily posed for selfies and took pictures with the insurrectionists as if they were tourists looking to get a good photo for the Christmas card.
They gently helped them down the stairs!
Why… it’s almost as if there’s a difference in how the police treat “protestors” depending on what race you are.
Remember when thousands of peaceful protestors were violently removed from a park in like 12 minutes, all so BIG BOY TRUMP could march over to a church he never attended and hold a bible he’s never read for a photo op? I do. And yet when terrorists (that’s what they are) STORM THE CAPITOL, it takes hours for them to clear them out. Hmmm. I think Joe Scarborough (whom I have plenty of contempt for) said it best:
I share his outrage. When I see photos of these mouthbreathing yahoos waltzing around the sacred and hallowed halls of our Capitol, it makes my blood boil. Who do they think they are that they get to do this? Why did the Capital Police fail so miserably?
I am reminded of a time this summer when stormtroopers marched through the streets of Minneapolis and SHOT at people for merely being outside their homes. And yet when it came to these terrorists they found all the restraint in the world. It’s disgusting and probably the best example of how white privilege creates separate societies. Watch this Black police officer continually cede ground to terrorists calling him the n-word when his job was to protect OUR HOUSE.
Four people died in this violent, ridiculous terrorist act. One of them was shot by the police. She died because she was trying to breach a barricaded hallway. There are videos online of her death that I won’t post here but it’s clear she was breaking the law when she did it.
And to be clear: I am not saying that the police should have been violent. I want them to have restraint. I want them to treat BLM protestors with AT LEAST the same regard they gave to these domestic terrorists. Is that too much to ask? But if ever there was a time to use violent force, perhaps it was yesterday, when an unruly mob stormed the halls of our capital with zip ties and duct tape intended to be used for kidnapping members of Congress, including the Vice President. There needs to be a massive investigation and people need to be held accountable for their lack of planning, their failure of duty, and how they aided and abetted these terrorists.
People keep asking “how could the police be so unprepared for this?” We don’t have to ask this question because we already know the answer. The cops thought that the people who looked like them, shared their views, and allowed this festering boil of a “movement” to burst would never turn on them. White people are civilized, they thought, only a mob of PoCs would act out with such rage and violence. It’s a tired narrative and one that was completely disproven yesterday. The terrorists who assaulted our country were treated with more dignity, respect, and humanity than Breonna Taylor received when she was asleep in her bed.
Looks like a fun guy! These people have no respect for the rule of law. They have no dignity or shame. Their worst instincts have been inflamed and encouraged by a president who only cares that they support him. In his one-minute video address during the riot, Trump spent more time complaining about how the election was stolen from him (it wasn’t) than calming his supporters. He said he loved them. He loves domestic terrorists. That’s who he is. That’s who he’s always been. He’s a white supremacist and courts the long-ignored nazi vote. And if you don’t think nazis were there yesterday then kindly explain this gentleman in the Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt and the like:
We’ve been saying for half a decade that Trump was a nazi. He dog-whistled for their support. He called people who marched with torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us” VERY FINE PEOPLE. Yesterday, he told them that he loved them. His administration has followed the nazi playbook for overtaking a democracy and installing a dictator. His supporters are dangerous, violent, delusional traitors who do nothing but create problems, sow division, and mock our attempts for equality and justice.
How does this make us look to the rest of the world? How can we ever invade a country under the guise of “spreading democracy” when we can’t even protect our own heads of government? Venezuela, a country that we’ve intervened in and messed with for centuries released a somewhat tongue-in-cheek statement yesterday:
Other countries have released similar statements. It is scary for the beacon of freedom and democracy to the world to be overrun like this. It’s worse for those of us who have foreseen this coming for years. Trump has spent the last few months sowing doubt about the integrity of our elections, without presenting any kind of proof or evidence that anything happened. Congressional supporters of Trump have parroted his conspiracy theories and given credence to their childish, nonsensical claims of fraud. They are all responsible for this.
Like rats off a sinking ship, we’ve started to see some people trying to wash the stain of MAGA off of themselves. Several people within the administration have resigned. Senators who helped create the events of yesterday are suddenly singing a different tune. It is our DUTY to make sure they cannot. Their support of MAGA must be branded upon them like a tattoo or a, er, brand.
For years, we have been trying to explain to MAGA-light people (like my father and his friends) that Trump was a different sort of animal. The Republican party has changed during my life in ways that are unimaginable. No longer is it about small government and states’ rights. They are the party of white supremacist terrorists. And despite our best efforts to educate the suburban whites who have supported them, it fell upon deaf and ignorant ears. 74 million of our fellow citizens voted for this. We warned them what would happen and tried to show them all the hate and ugliness that already had happened and still they supported him.
Do you support him now? Are you going to keep wearing your MAGA hats proudly? As far as I’m concerned, MAGA has become a symbol of hate, worn by traitors and terrorists who seek to overthrow the structure of our government. It’s as bad as a swastika or a Klan hood, items that plenty of MAGA people already have. MAGA is just the latest symbol in a long line of white supremacy swag.
At the end of last year, I wrote about how I wasn’t ready to make nice with the people who have driven our country into such a low and pathetic state of affairs. My chief concern was that the MAGA people weren’t interested in making nice. They are fascists — it’s their way or the highway. Their devotion to a demagogue leader who cares for nothing but himself and his own interests was a total non-starter for me. To forgive someone, they must first seek contrition. There has been NONE of that from the MAGA folks. There’s been no “oops my bad” or “hey, you guys were right about this Trump fella”. Instead, they’ve doubled down on supporting him and his fascist agenda. What did you think the outcome of this would be?
Trump has been calling for violence since he began his campaign. His supporters have EATEN it up. He has been their hero, allowing their white supremacist and bigoted views to be spoken out loud and encouraged.
So what can we do about it now? We already voted him out of office. We took back the Senate. And yet this happened days before the inauguration of Joe Biden. There is still plenty of time for him to do more damage. If we let him.
Sure, it might seem silly to impeach him, AGAIN, with only a week or so left in his term. But there are a few positives that can come from it. First, it will send a strong message that behavior like this will not be tolerated. If we can’t impeach a president for inciting insurrection and sedition, then I’m not sure what the point of impeachment is. Second, it will guarantee that he is removed from the White House so he can begin fighting the very real criminal cases awaiting him on the other side of the door. Lastly, it will ensure that he can never run for office again. Even New York Times resident-bedbug Bret Stephens thinks it’s a good idea.
If the domestic terrorists who shamed and stained our nation yesterday, if the president and his family who incited the violence, if the congresspeople who cheered and encouraged the ridiculous, disproven claims about election integrity, are not held responsible and punished to the fullest extent of the law, then we have truly gone down a dark path. The standard will have been set and it will now be our responsibility to ensure we act accordingly.
The next time an unarmed Black person is murdered by police, there will be no need to protest or vote. We can simply storm the halls of government until we get what we want. When the student debt crisis overwhelms a generation of young people (myself included), we won’t have to petition our leaders for relief. All we need to do is cave into mob rule and destroy democracy. And while there was some violence and property destruction (not the same thing btw) at the BLM protests over the summer, much of that was caused by MAGA people intending to stir up trouble.
Four people, our fellow citizens, died yesterday within the halls of our Capitol or on the steps outside. During the BLM protests, the only murdering that happened was done by a misguided teenager who believed all the bullshit he’d been fed. He’s now considered a hero by the MAGA crowd. It’s disgusting, despicable, and completely on-brand for these traitors.
So where do we go from here? I’ll have more on that next week. It will largely depend on what the consequences are for the traitors who violated our country and the enablers who supported them. If nothing happens, it will be a dark period in our shared history. But if the response is swift, severe, and unmistakably harsh, perhaps there will be a way forward. The MAGA crowd has been fomenting rebellion and violence since it’s inception. Warnings from liberals and centrists have been ignored, mocked, and outright denied. They called it Trump Derangement Syndrome. But who were the ones participating in insurrection yesterday? It wasn’t us. It was the collection of “deplorables” who will do anything to preserve white supremacy in our country. That’s pretty deranged.
MAGA is officially the symbol of hate and a terrorist organization. Full stop. And I intend on treating MAGA people in kind. You are traitors and we will work tirelessly to shut you down. I’ll let Wyatt Earp summarize my feelings.
Yesterday, the MAGA folks called down the thunder. I see a MAGA hat and I’m letting you know what traitorous piece of garbage you are. You do not get to invade our capital and vandalize American democracy. So run, you curs, because we’re coming for you. Not with violence (we’re liberals after all) but with scorn, shame, and every ounce of disgust I can muster.
Hell’s coming with me. Are you?