Trump's Coup d'état, January 6, 2021
By Johnny Anonymous - 1-28-2021
Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as the day American democracy died. Now the revival is up to all of us.
The once peaceful transfer of U.S. presidential power dating all-the-way back to George Washington and John Adams more than two centuries ago has now ended. Donald Trump’s incitement of an insurrection Wednesday, January 6, 2021 witnessed hundreds of his supporters braking into the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This domestic terrorism was meant to prevent the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory in the Electoral College, and it left five people dead –one Capitol Police officer— and several people injured. The chaos cemented Trump’s reputation as the worst president of all time. But it will also cement the ruined reputations of shameless cheerleaders who put party over country for a president for whom lying came as naturally as breathing.
As the violence built outside the Capitol the colder Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said on the Senate floor that attempts by GOP lawmakers to invalidate the presidential election based on the losing side’s unsubstantiated allegations put democracy at risk of a “death spiral.” Looking back, it seems odd how he never said anything like that right after the election when Trump began his weeks of fabricated claims about being the rightful winner.
After being forced to evacuate her Capitol office, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, went on Twitter to declare, “This is wrong. This is not who we are. I’m heartbroken for our nation today.” Why wasn’t she heartbroken long before that by a president who has encouraged sedition for more than two months with his tweets and public remarks? Again, this statement comes as a total backlash.
Sen. Mitt Romney, the Utah Republican who has been a beacon of honesty in his party about Trump’s amorality, yelled, “This is what you’ve gotten, guys,” on the Senate floor as rioters bore down on the chamber, referring to some of his GOP colleagues who backed Trump’s absurd and arsonous claims that he won in a “landslide” on Nov. 3.
The hope that the damage that Trump could do as president would be limited by judicial guardrails has held up. State and federal judges have turned back dozens of lawsuits challenging the integrity of election results for the most basic of reasons: They have offered no proof.
Even conspiracy “experts” like former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell flawed when trying to flip the election. Ms. Powell joined the Trump legal team with Rudy Giuliani in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden's clear victory. After several interviews in which Powell spread increasingly outlandish election fraud conspiracy theories on how the voting system was rigged only in areas in which Trump lost, Trump's legal team formally distanced itself from her, stating she was "practicing law on her own" and was not a member of the team, though she continued to meet with the president in the White House. Powell also would not meet with any media on air to explain or discuss on how specifically the voting software was fixed in Biden’s favor.
But it seems the fears that so many expressed in 2016 when Republicans chose Trump as their candidate have finally been realized. Many who supported Trump during the 2016 election are now silent; while there are others who are very vengeful and outright angry. They are often known as “QAnon” or simple “racial conspiracy theorist.”
The Republican leaders did indeed know their risk. Evangelical leaders knew too. Judicial conservatives knew. Each made their deal with Trump cynically, setting aside their values because they saw a path to power. Should they all be forgiven for everything which the world witnessed January 6, 2021?
There’s no doubt some will be sympathetic to Trump supporters and their grievances. But trying to steal an election that your candidate lost by more than 7 million votes — while pretending to hold the high ground — deserves contempt, not sympathy.
George W. Bush, the last Republican president before Trump, was exactly right when he called Wednesday’s events “sickening” and an “insurrection.” The president-elect also struck the right tone: “Like so many other Americans, I am genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation — so long the beacon of light and hope for democracy — has come to such a dark moment,” Biden said. “The work of the moment and the work of the next four years must be the restoration of democracy, of decency, honor, respect, the rule of law.”
Hopefully the work needed to solve this conspiracy will start soon. We shouldn’t demonize those we disagree with as QAnon did inside and outside the Capitol. Settle differences through civil debate. Collaborate when we can. Move on together from the momentous mistake of the Trump presidency.
