6 January 2021 (Brussels, Belgium) – Let’s be clear. This was never, ever NOT going to happen. Americans just do not know their history. Nor do they care. They are just too dumbed down.
No, not when Reagan eviscerated all public spending and accused anyone who questioned this to be a communist. Or when he started the death by a thousand budget cuts of our sacred covenant that every citizen deserves a good education and a decent chance at a decent life. It was never not going to happen when Timothy McVeigh and his accomplices bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Not when the NRA called ATF agents “jack-booted thugs.” Not when the anti-choice language about murder led to the killings of several doctors at abortion clinics. Not when Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld chose fascist language like “Homeland Security” to exploit 9/11 to stir up a phony hysterical patriotism and send their boys out to a forever war with no consequences.
And it was not going to not happen when Obama was re-elected and Bill O’Reilly called it “the end of white America” or when Glenn Beck said that “if you take away our guns it will be 1776 again”, or when the Tea Party gathered to claim that healthcare was an attempt “to take away our precious freedoms”.
Not when words like sedition and treason started getting used on the floor of the House and the Senate to describe legitimate differences of opinion about policy. When white rioters spit in the face of John Lewis. It was never not going to happen when the “Oathkeepers” took their racist version of justice to the border with impunity or when we callously looked the other way for children being torn from their parents’ arms and locked in cages.
Or when Cliven Bundy faced off against federal officers in Nevada and then his son in Oregon, also with impunity.
From the minute Donald Trump first declared himself a candidate it was never not going to happen.
Oh, and let’s be clear about this, too. This was premeditated. Not only by Donald Trump. No single person can get us here on his own. There are always expanding concentric circles of facilitation helping this sort of thing gain steam. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in whatever batcave Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller are currently sniggering away in. The civilian staff at DOD got swapped out a mere weeks before inauguration and replaced with loyalist hacks. And who needs DOD permission to call in the National Guard? Washington DC. The head of the Proud Boys found his way into the White House for a private meeting with the President just 2 weeks ago. This was premeditated.
But they made some mistakes. They assumed the police would be with them and yes, the police were (Capitol Police were filmed dropping the security gates to let the protestors into the building; there are 37 overlapping Federal and local law enforcement agencies in D.C. – two days ago they rejected help from any of them). That’s what explains the absolutely shameful lack of preparedness for what was so obviously going to happen. But ultimately, I don’t think the police will stand with them, in the end, not when the bullets start to fly. And bullets are gonna fly. Maybe not tonight, but they will. And they assumed the military would be with them and many of them as individuals are. But as a coherent and highly disciplined force, they are not. And the officer corps most certainly aren’t. The U.S. military lives (basically) for honor and order. I learned that in my stint in the Marine Corps. The military will not go with them.
I also think they assumed there’d be more loyalists on the floor of the Congress who’d egg this all on once it started. But of course they were behind the President because they had no backbone. Why would they develop a backbone now? In one sense Trump was right in his speech to the crowd today, before they assaulted the Capitol building. Americans will not take their country back with weakness. You need to meet strength with strength. For Trump “strength” means physical violence, so we’ll see how simple minded Americans really are.
But strength can mean many things, most of which have nothing to do with violence. There will have to be consequences. Dire consequences. All these felons are on the public record. Breaking in, looting, terrorizing. Their intent is on record on Twitter and Parler. Will they be prosecuted? Will the rebel legislators be censured? They are just as responsible for all this as Trump. They need to be censured as severely as is possible.
And crucify the attorneys involved. Disbar the provoking, prevaricating attorneys who have deliberately misled and fictionalized their way into the courts, making a mockery of the rule of law. Deplatform and prosecute the instigators. All of them. The promotion of propaganda can no longer be tolerated. The First Amendment is well known not to ensure your right to “yell fire in a crowded theater.” Well, this sure looks like yelling fire on the crowded steps of the Capital building.
And make D.C. a state. It is a mockery that this city that is so important to us and so full of good people who deserved not to have to be taxed and coerced without representation. And they certainly should not have to ask permission of DOD staff, well known civilian political hacks, to bring in the National Guard to defend their citizens and monuments. The D.C. government knew what was going to happen and implored Congress and the military for permission to bring in the Guard. But were denied. Those Trump political hacks did their job well.
Impeach the President? Or invoke the 25th Amendment? Nah. You missed that chance. He is a menace and an enemy of the public good. He has well crossed the line. America blew that.
This is just the beginning. This is not going away any time soon. This took generations to happen and it will take generations to change. If it can. I doubt it. The genie is out of the bottle. So Americans will need to be very brave. Many more people will die. That’s not melodrama. The guns are out now. Things have been set in motion and that cannot be reversed.
So suck it up and be ready, America. You are heading for even bigger trouble. Brace yourselves.
Mr. Bufithis: Your comments here are the most succinct and accurate reflection of what led us to this horrific point in time. We cannot unwind this; our state capitals and politicians will be under attack…in fact, they already were on the evening of January 6th, in addition to what we’ve seen at the federal level. And the absolute and possibly intentional bungling of law enforcement protection is appalling; I will hope there will be an investigation into the leadership role of DC police and Capital police in addition to the conduct of not all, but too many of its officers.
Your comments on the military are so spot on, and caught my attention. I was not a professional soldier, but spent time in the difficult position as a machine gunner on long-distance reconnaissance teams in Vietnam. That experience taught me things beyond just the war experience itself and the corresponding political turmoil – I saw the sheer lack of education and knowledge of so many young (and not so young) Americans, the sheer resistance to any concept of thinking about societal workings…our own and that of those not “like” us. It was the ignorance of oblivion that appalled me, willfully not being aware of anything. But, very importantly and as you said, I also saw unbelievable professionalism, dedication, and honest true love of ideals by not just professional soldiers but many who grew up within their military service…some who continued on in service for a few years, others for a career that I knew. Those are the military leaders who will step up today and tomorrow to help address this madness…not in conducting a military coup, but exactly the opposite – through their love of freedom, ideals, and country, they are going to prevent it. They showed that on January 6th, the exact moment when they could have moved in and taken over this country, just as the insane criminal Trump intended.
Thank you again for an excellent article.
Aaron Taylor