*This is a political rant more than anything. I needed to take the space required to process such a wild day this was. This comes from a place of anger, frustration and some fear as well. I could not put out a blog on another topic with what happened here today.*
Photo credit to John Moore/Getty Images
January 6th, 2021 will be a day that many of us will never forget. I say that to also say that we should never forget this day but I know that we live in a polarized world with parties that will try to reframe and then eventually erase what the world was witness to. What went down today need be forever remembered as appalling and unequivocally Un-American. The insurrection at The Capitol showed real rioting and looting that resulted in the murder of a police officer at the hands of Trump supports. This action of storming The Capitol to stop the verification of the vote for a new President was not more than a tantrum because their "guy" lost but also a clear effort to subvert democracy and form a coup.
I was sitting at my desk, working, and I suddenly remembered that the confirmation of the electoral college vote was happening live. I was not enthusiastic about watching this, but the news had been covering the Republican senators that were planning to attempt overturn the results by challenging votes over the last few days leading up to this day. This overturning of the votes was not going to happen as there was no legal way at this point. Almost all the 60+ lawsuits had no evidence and no real backing but it was about a putting on a show. I found a live stream and I tuned in right on time. The first objection was made by Arizona and they were moving to the next step in the process. There were several things happening at this point, simultaneous speeches from House and Senate leaders, and movement to convene separate sessions to discuss the validity of the objection. Mitch McConnell made his scared remarks geared to his Republican colleagues that this action of trying to keep Trump in office would ruin the country. Moments later as the objection process began, the news cuts to the anchor and to feed a of a "protest" outside the building.
What happened next was all over tv and social media. Live images of thousands filling the lawns of The Capitol grounds and reports talking about how angry these people were. This appeared to be a typical protest at first. Lots of people moving around, chants, and signs. It only took about 10 or so minutes to fully understand that this was different. It happened so quickly, barriers were broken and the first reports of The Capitol being breeched came through the various reporters. I watched as many of the reporters feared for lives from threats screamed at them as they have been labelled as "fake news." The following events are well documented and I am sure you have your own experiences that you lived and may want to share, so I will pause there to move on to my next points.
It took the news almost an hour to address these acts as riots. That was a whole hour after windows were broken, a person was shot, Senators and Representatives were given gas masks and rioters were looting offices. This was after interviews that gave reason on why these people were doing this. They were "taking back their country." They were "stopping the vote." They were intimidating Mike Pence and other Republicans to openly side with them and overthrow the democratic elections that proved that their guy lost. The part of all this that really stumped me was all the people asking why and how could this happen? It was their shock that they could "take things this far." Whether that shock was real or not, I don't know for sure.
Photo credit to Leah Millis/Reuters
What I do know is that many of us were not shocked. Trump has been riling these people up and feeding their fear and anger for the last 5+ years. He has been preparing them to do something like this since the beginning. Now they follow his delusions word for word and it became blatantly apparent what extremes the most deranged would go to.
There are many tragedies that we saw from that day but the biggest to me was how much work we have to put in moving forward to undo the damage what was done by Trump and his followers. Progress has always been so slow but this extremism has shown that we can no longer stand by and choose the "middle ground." We either denounce Nazis or lose America. We either support the everyday American or we lose America. There was so much blame thrown around to distract like how this was all the work of Anti-Fascists and I fear that some people are so far gone that it might be too late for them. I would normally say that we should educate them but education is not enough anymore. They need to atone. We need to hold these people accountable and not just the ones that rioted at The Capitol but the ones who were quiet and checked the box for Trump. By not having these difficult conversations, too many people were able to radicalize and wave flags for a celebrity President that pushed the dominos over into lunacy.
The threat was always there and I pray that tomorrow on January 20th, 2021, hope will prevail once again. Real Americans won't forget what happened to get here.
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