It’s a good thing that our second amendment rights are protected because we will probably need to think more about self-protection with the large number of unplanned, unwanted, fatherless and misguided children who will be teenagers in the next 15 years or so.
A week ago, on Wednesday December 6th, 2021, the President incited a huge crowd of supporters who had gathered in Washington DC to hear him speak and to show their support for the “stop the steal” lie, marched on and attacked the Capitol building. Inside the building were lawmakers from all 50 states who were meeting to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election. In his speech, Trump repeated is claim that the election had been rigged “All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.” He laid out many of the mostly debunked theories about election fraud and stated that the Democrats and the “fake news” media were complicit in refusing to acknowledge the perceived irregularities. “Our media is not free. It’s not fair. It suppresses thought. It suppresses speech, and it’s become the enemy of the people. It’s become the enemy of the people. It’s the biggest problem we have in this country.”
Trump continued to repeat his rhetoric while pushing the crowd and asking them to “fight”. At many points, he was interrupted by chants of “Fight for Trump!”.
Referring to the Vice President’s overseeing of the Electoral Vote counts, Trump talked about how Pence could refuse to certify the electors. “…and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution.” Trump continued “Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
And that’s what happened. The crowd, now charged up and ready to “take back our country”, marched to the Capitol and within a few hours, they managed to breach all the security and hundreds of them entered the building. Congress had to evacuate and take shelter in other parts of the complex while the mob roamed around the building. Chants of “hang Mike Pence” and “where’s Nancy?” were heard.
One of the rioters was shot and killed as she tried to breach a locked and barricaded doorway into the area where lawmakers were sheltering. One Capitol police officer died after he was beaten by the crowd. Members of the mob ran amok, entering the offices of Senators, stealing things and causing havoc while saying “this is OUR house!”. Security and police officers seemed unable to stop them as they were overwhelmed by the numbers.
The mayor of DC imposed a 6pm curfew and the National Guard was finally called in to help disperse the rioters. Videos show a much heavier handed effort to remove the crowds from the building after the woman was shot. By evening, things had mostly calmed down but not before 4 people were dead (two additional deaths would be attributed to the attack within a couple days). Lawmakers re-convened later that evening and completed their task of certifying the election results. Many who had planned to vote against certification changed their minds after seeing the possible outcome of casting doubt on the validity of our elections could mean.
In the aftermath of this crazy event, I spent a lot of time on social media and news sites trying to figure out what had happened and what the outcome would be. As photos and videos began to appear online and were shared by my friends who seemed as astonished as I was about what had happened, I responded to a few:
After watching this video, I replied to my FB friend’s sharing of it. “I just finished watching. I’m shaking. I’m disgusted. I’m in disbelief that people died for these ridiculous lies and conspiracy theories. I had already seen a couple videos of the shooting but what gets me is the sheer power of the crowd. They push through lines of police with indifference. It’s clear that the police would be overwhelmed if they began to shoot into the crowds so I can see why they just try to work with them in order to slow their roll. But until shots were fired, the rioters were unstoppable. Some people were clearly just along for the ride and there were definitely some crazies in the crowd but there were also some smart, motivated individuals. I fear that these people will show up at the inauguration next week. Law enforcement and the military will no doubt be more prepared but I am pretty confident that something is going to go down.”
There have been many statements and analyses of this event and I’m sure there will be more. Today is the beginning of the second impeachment processes of Trump. Let’s see where this all leads….
“And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure.
Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.
Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities. Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing. They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive. But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.
One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America. This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly. We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.
In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished. It’s not going to happen to us.
Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution. In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.
To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.”
With all that is going on in this country, we need someone to bring people together not to name a group as an enemy.
Of course, you can parse the headlines and the text of the speech from whichever perspective you’d like. However, the tone of Trump’s speech was divisive and he made no effort to address any of the actual social issues that lead to the demonstrations and protests. He set a tone of “us vs. them” rather than admitting that we still have some progress to make.
Just to be clear, I agree with a few of his policies and I even agree with some of the points he made in this speech, particularly with regards to cancel culture but I am honest when I tell people that “I just don’t like Trump.” I think he’s a narcissistic con artist who is not fit for the office of the Presidency or to represent our country in any way. I believe the tone he uses is completely antithetical to actually achieving any progress in our country. And before you label me as a “snowflake” who can’t handle the frank speech, stop and think about how you need to speak and behave in your own job. Most of us probably make an effort to understand where people are coming from and treat people with respect and some compassion in order to get things done. There is truth to the saying “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”.
Consider this for a second: If you’re an “insider” who has figured out that there is some grand conspiracy involved in this pandemic (or the Jeffrey Epstein case or any number of current events), wouldn’t you know the WHOLE story before it happens?
Remember back in mid-May when the initial round of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 were flying around? If you had some special knowledge of the situation and were aware of a plot by the “deep state”, shouldn’t you have known that, in a couple weeks, a man is going to die while being arrested by police and that this would spark protests in the US and all over the world which would lead to civil unrest, violence and more “attacks on our freedoms”?
But no, you weren’t aware of those things because you were and still are, just making it up as you go along. You can only tie events together (in whatever convoluted manner) AFTER they happen.
Americans have come to believe that expertise is not meaningful. This is not a by-product of COVID but been going on for years. Here’s a letter to the editor of Newsweek regarding an article on how the energy sector used “experts” to muddy the waters on climate change.Sharon Begley’s article about “The Denial Machine,” [Aug 14, 2007] as frightening as it was, misses a crucial aspect of the problem. It is not just that well-heeled corporations are buying up politicians or promoting science-as-they-want-it-to-be.
“It is that our society is more than happy to accept spin and cant because we have come to believe that all expertise is bias, that all knowledge is opinion, that every judgment is relative. I see this daily in my university classroom. Many of even my best students seem to have lost the ability to think critically about the world. They do not believe in the transformative power of knowledge because they do not believe in knowledge itself. Begley decries the tactic of making the scientists appear divided, but the corporations didn’t have to invent this tactic. It is built into our carefully balanced political “debates,” into our news shows with equal time given to pundits from each side and into the “fairness” we try to teach in our schools. We need not be surprised that people have become consumers who demand the right to choose as they wish between the two equally questionable sides of every story. Neither global warming nor any other serious problem can be addressed by a society that equates willful ignorance with freedom of thought.”