Republican voters have been coddled like children for far too long; allowed to exist in a surreal unreality in which they won the Civil War, that Obama wasn't born in the United States, and that an election, freer, fairer, and more decisive than anyone expected during the pandemic, was stolen from them.
This happened because the Republican party has spent decades deliberately feeding blatant lies to the people for whose benefit they are supposed to work. Once again, much like the Bunkum speeches made by White Democrats that incited the Civil War, we are relearning the dire consequences of abusing a huge section of the electorate with an overwhelming firehose of baseless lies.
The Republican party bears 100% of the responsibility for the horror that transpired today. There were many, many signs, after Trump took that elevator ride in June 2015, that telegraphed—in terms so bold and stark that they might as well have been neon—the horrific desecration of the US Capitol Building. The litany of crimes and abuses of the office of the President committed by Donald Trump would fill completely a paper copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, or as many sheets of paper as the US Criminal Code, which no single individual has ever read to completion.
Between December, 2019 and February 2020, following the Russia Investigation, House Democrats voted to impeach Donald Trump, citing his rampant abuse of the office and the threat he might pose in the future. The Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, quickly dismissed the charges brought by the House. They were given an exit ramp, and they did not take it. I cannot be more clear: The Republican party owns this.
I do not think it is fair to say, in this instance, that the only terrorists, or agitators, or goons, or thugs—any word you might want to use, except for protester—were the people who made it inside the building. Much like every other instance where Donald Trump’s true form has emerged these past five years—the moments when he makes fun of disabled people, or when he calls for peaceful Democratic protesters and journalists to be assaulted—the people who followed his command to assemble in Washington DC today were there for a single, violent purpose: To disrupt, through the use of force, the Congressional certification of the Electoral College votes.
I want to draw a stark and necessary distinction between the protests over the summer and the violent assault on our nation’s capital today. The protests that erupted following George Floyd’s senseless and cold-blooded murder by police—and countless other names that give legitimate and just cause to Black grievance—were enjoined by a plurality of citizens of every age, gender, ethnicity, etc, to give voice to the brutal and malicious treatment endured by Black people especially by the police, but at all levels and domains of American society. These protests were massive, and—significantly—incredibly, heroically, peaceful, even as they faced unrelenting, counterproductive police onslaught. Hours and hours of footage shows peaceful protesters being teargassed, pepper sprayed, disappeared, pincered, beaten, and run over by police. The police, in multiple locations throughout the United States, including Philadelphia and Kenosha, expressed candid support for far-right marauders. Given these facts, it is a wonder how, without the long and proud history of Black nonviolent civil disobedience, that these protests could remain as peaceful as they were.
This is what legitimate grievance looks like. In the words of Kimberly Jones, “Far as I’m concerned, they could burn this bitch to the ground, and it still wouldn’t be enough. And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.” They want access to the same resources and opportunities that white people enjoy, and their protests serve as a stark reminder of how the promise of our Declaration of Independence falls far short of reality.
The proud Black tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience carries with it a deep reverence for what America should be, and a reverence for the institutions as representations of what that might look like. With people like the late, infinitely honorable Atlanta Representative John Lewis, or his colleague, equally honorable, Representative Elijah Cummings, the goal of any protest on the capitol, from Martin Luther King’s march to the steps, to Black Lives Matter, the objective is not the destruction of the institution, it is not an invasion. It is a statement; it is a reminder that they, too, belong in those halls, that they, too, must be included in the People’s House.
The assault on the Capitol Building is not that. The Congressional procedure as directed by the Constitution of the United States that cements the peaceful transition of power from one President to the next, a rare and horrifically fragile phenomenon, is the most precious of all our possessions. Without the pageantry and solemnity of this ritual, America would be staring into the abyss. This ritual separates the United States from its enemies, and it is the very backbone upon which the rest of the country is built. It is the most important and most necessary feature of our system of government, and to undermine it is certain death.
The grievance that led Donald Trump’s supporters to assault the Capitol Building is built on nothing but lies invented and propagated by none other than the President himself. It is an ouroboros. Sixty—by Sen. Schumer’s count—election lawsuits have been defeated in the courts. Every single election official in every single state, regardless of party affiliation, has asserted that the election systems were incredibly secure given the circumstances, and that there has been no significant fraud that would affect the outcome of any election. I would here argue, as an aside, that the decentralized structure of our election procedures makes any attempt to actually steal an election in more than one state nigh impossible, and it is something we should be very grateful for. This is a big reason why Trump’s attempt to steal the election has failed.
The egregious imagery of the marauders who attacked the Capitol Building today brings to light demons that have not been exorcised from our society, and give voice to their true, evil intent. The flags used to desecrate the halls of the People’s House are intended to inflame and provoke feelings of ressentiment felt during the Civil War, and are so offensive because they are the flags of traitors, of people who long ago decided to fight a doomed war against our government just because they felt entitled to own human beings as property. In the clearest of terms, the people carrying the flag of our enemy into the heart of our government are a provocation. You betrayed this country and we defeated you. The Confederate flag absolutely does not belong in the Capitol Building, and this is why Senator Cory Booker was so incensed during his speech on the floor. Imagine, if you will, if the British in 1774, or the Nazis, or the Soviet Union, or al Queda, were able to plant their flags in the heart of our government. It is an affront that every American who believes in what this country should represent must recognize as a threat.
No single American citizen should ever defend what happened today, and no single American should be willing to overlook the responsibility of the Republican party for its collaboration with the forces that made it possible. It is an embarrassment and an affront to everything we are supposed to represent to ourselves and to the world, and it should have never happened.
The manipulated mob deployed by the President and abetted by his party are a continued threat against our country, and constitute a lasting, poisonous legacy that will haunt us for years to come. Doubt built upon lies and impervious to contrary evidence paved the way for fascists in Germany, and these marauders are no different. DC police continue to find weapons, including a cooler filled with Molotov cocktails, around the Capitol Building, which points to the sad and terrifying fact that a Reichstag Fire was in the cards today.
The future may feel bright with Biden’s victory and Ossoff and Warnock’s victories in Georgia, but thanks to the myriad crises unleashed by the Instigator in Chief, there are also more dark clouds on the horizon.
