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Donald Trump is engaging in a seditious crusade against the US government while neglecting his presidential duties. Wednesday, he incited supporters to march on the Capitol, where they smashed windows, trashed the building, and beat a police officer to death. They terrorized lawmakers intent on affirming Joseph R. Biden’s lawful election to succeed him as the next president.
Americans must face and tackle how fundamentally radical and seditious Trump’s machinations are. He is using the cover of the executive office to wage an ongoing campaign against representative government, Congress, and any fellow Republican, from the vice-president on down, who dares to speak out or break away. Ever since taking office, but increasingly since the Republican senate acquitted him of impeachment charges last February, Trump has steadfastly implanted an ideology of hate, intolerance, and grievance in his followers’ minds. This ideology involves labeling fellow Americans as enemies and dangerously “wrong” liars, who must be opposed because they threaten Donald J Trump and his supposedly righteous campaign to stay in power. Members of the legislative branch, who are doing their Constitutional duties, he dismisses and demeans as “weak” and “corrupt.” Ditto honorable state officials who won’t do what he wants.
Trump has consistently proclaimed these lies and methodically popularized them through tweets, speeches, and interviews. Since early November, he has continued to insist that he won the presidential election. (It was “a sacred landslide.”) He has never conceded defeat nor admitted lying. His doublespeak continues, and will continue after he leaves the presidency. (Even in what some regard as his concession speech, Trump never admits losing, nor acknowledges the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.)
Trump’s core followers completely believe the false narrative he tells. They believe that the Democrats and Joe Biden stole the election; that massive election fraud occurred (particularly in urban areas of swing states with lots of black voters); and that Trump is the rightful victor. Trump preaches that his followers are “the true Americans,” and that if his people do not “take back the government,” through violence if necessary, corruption will reign, and the greatness of the US will disappear for good.
What we saw of the assault on the Capitol in real time was superficial. Initial footage, much of it filmed at a great distance, failed to convey how nasty, violent, and intentional part of the crowd really was. In some of the early videos, we saw protestors strolling aimlessly through the Capitol, documenting their innocent-seeming transgressions with selfies, whooping like children. We saw guards opening barricades to allow “protestors” to flow past. Some Capitol Police chatted and posed with rioters, showed them courtesies, or stood around doing nothing. In contrast to the savage response the peaceful BLM protests elicited in the capital this summer, police applied a double standard Wednesday, giving a gingerly, kid-glove treatment to the mainly white crowd. Black Capitol police officers later complained that their superiors did little to prepare for what they privately knew would be, not a peaceful protest, but a violent assault.
As more footage has begun to circulate, and more bits of news come together, can we appreciate how deliberate, pitched, and murderous the incursion really was. Trump’s “army” was handicapped in that it had been warned against carrying firearms in DC, and those who marched on the Capitol were mainly unarmed. Nonetheless, members of the crowd carried cruder weapons, such as flags and staffs. Some had flash-bangs or zip ties for binding people. Some had ear-pieces and two-way radios; others had maps of the network of tunnels under the buildings. Two bombs were planted around the perimeter of the Capitol, but police found and defused them before they went off.
Though there appears to have been no coordinated plan of “attack,” elements of the crowd battled fiercely to break into the building by climbing through windows, bull-rushing officers, and battering the heavy reinforced glass of the main entrances and House Chamber. Trump’s forces beat and trampled one officer on the Capitol steps; he later died. Another policeman was pummeled nearly to unconsciousness, as a phalanx of rioters pressed to get through a sliding door.
Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran traveled across the country to take part in the assault on Congress, tried to climb through an opening into the door to the House Chamber that armed police officers were defending. She was shot in the neck and later died. She is just one example of a large subversive population who will follow Trump to the death, falsely believing that they are serving a noble and patriotic cause.
Inside, the Senate and House were ignorant that the Capitol Building was being overcome and assailed. They were engaged in debate when suddenly security officers ushered the Vice President and the House Speaker out. The senators, too, were quickly cleared and moved to safety in an undisclosed location. On the House side, some congressmen and women were trapped inside on the main floor of the chamber and in the balcony when the rioters began ramming the doors from outside. Security officers barricaded the door and drew their weapons to defend it, as the remaining MCs were evacuated. Staff and some representatives who were not in the chambers were instead trapped in a lockdown in their offices for hours. Only later did Congress have an opportunity to reckon with the grave danger latent in the massive assault.
There are now speculations about “a crowd within the crowd,” a highly militarized and well-equipped group intent on gaining access to the chambers, destroying the Electoral Votes, kidnapping or executing lawmakers, or forcing them to overturn the election under threat of harm. Recall that before Christmas, Donald Trump met with the leader of the Proud Boys at the White House, and that many members of this violent supremacist organization were visibly active in Wednesday’s crowd. It may take a few days for senators and House members to recover, but when they do they will realize how close they were to being killed, captured, or otherwise victimized.
Traumatic though it was, Trump’s open insurrection against the legislative branch was merely an opening salvo. Thugs leaving the building were heard to say “this is just the beginning,” and “next time we come back we will be armed.” Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, heard many in the crowd lingering around the Capitol saying they were proud of what they had done. Videos are circulating in various backrooms of the internet, priming Trump’s forces to renew their violent assault on January 20, Inauguration Day. One hopes the threat of renewed violence against Congress and the institutions of government will galvanize Republicans and Democrats to join together against Donald Trump and his treachery.
Image by Mike Maguire, from this source.
