On January 6, 2021, a violent mob of armed white nationalists overwhelmed the Capital Police and breached the Capital in a nearly successful attempt to prevent the United States Congress from recording the certified electoral college vote of December 14, 2020.
The mob was summoned publicly during the preceding weeks by Donald Trump through social media. He identified the place, date and time for the assembly point: the Whitehouse, January 6, 2021, 12:00pm. He promised it would be “wild”. They showed up by the thousands. He whipped them into a frenzy of self-righteous indignation with a pitch-perfect propaganda rant on The Big Lie of a stolen election. He told them to march on the Capital. The rant was laced with transparent encouragement to violence “strength” not “weakness”, goals “get your country back”, friends “to cheer [lawmakers who vote to throw out the outcome of the election]”, and foes “… and some [lawmakers who do not vote to overturn the outcome of the election] ... less so.”
Let’s dispense with the fiction that Trump was doing anything other than assembling, and then instructing an armed and violent mob to attack the Capital to prevent Congress from officially recording his defeat in the preceding election. There is no more “just kidding” excuse for advocating violence, insurrection and violent overthrow of the government. I won’t insult your intelligence; don’t insult mine.
Let’s speak directly to values.
Freedom
Votes don’t count unless they are votes for my guy? Is that freedom? Nobody I know voted for the other guy, so all of those votes must be fake? If they didn’t vote for my guy, they are not True Americans? Their votes are not legal? It’s OK if we just exclude the votes we don’t like this time. A little fascism might be OK. What could possibly go wrong that that?!
Government regulations are an infringement of freedom? Every regulation is bad? All of them? Every single one? I remember people who fell into the Rouge River and died — not from drowning — from a brief exposure the contaminated water. I remember the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969. How do you put out the fire when the river itself is on fire because it is so polluted? That event motivated the notorious communist extremist Richard Nixon to sign the Clean Water Act. Why should anybody think freedom means being free to pollute the water we all drink? The air we all breathe? Freedom to destroy the planet for future generations? What kind of world is that? In 2011 the citizens of Toledo, Ohio could not drink the water, because of a toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie triggered by runoff from industrialized, chemical-intensive, big-ag (conventional) farms. Big-ag sure does not want to be held accountable for poisoning the planet. God help anyone who lives downstream or downwind from these freedom loving patriots!
Wearing a mask to slow the spread of a highly contagious, airborne, deadly virus is an infringement of personal liberty? Are you crazy?! This kind of rubbish needs to be refuted immediately! Nobody has a God-given right to endanger the lives of others through willful reckless ignorance! A person’s right to foolishly endanger their own life ends when they exhale those lethal virus particles in the same room with anybody else! They should be thrown into a closed room with each other immediately to protect the rest of us from them.
Government is the rules and enforcement which allow us to interact with each other without fear. Well-functioning effective government is how communities organize themselves to pursue common goals, establish security and safety, create a shared and equitable framework for commerce — a level playing field where the best services, products and ideas win. It is the cop on the beat who protects the weak from the strong. It is the sentry tower sounding the alarm when danger is threatening the community. It is the collective will. Government is us! Until we let somebody take it away…
The people who benefit from the destruction of government are the bullies, cheaters and criminals. The next time somebody tells you “government is the problem”, take a good long hard look at where that statement came from. Did it come from the person in front of you? Or did they just repeat a statement they hear repeated over and over again on some cable “news” channel? If it came directly from that person… what part of “level playing field”, “shared responsibility”, “good of the community” is causing them such distress that they want to tear the whole system down?
Religious Liberty
Religious Persecution? Is it persecution to be legally required to treat all people respectfully and equally in all commercial, legal and political interactions no matter how they look, who they love, or what they believe? Believe whatever you want, but treat everybody with mutual respect and dignity. How is that persecution? For people of the Christian faith: What would Jesus do? Turn the other cheek, or pay the legal bills for anyone who punches a reporter? Suffer the little children to come unto me, or rip them from their parents arms and put them into cages? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, or impose your religion on others?
Why would anyone think it is a good idea to mix religion and government? Mixing religion and politics contaminates and defiles both. We have examples of countries where religion is deeply involved in government: Iran, Pakistan, and more and more India. These countries give citizens the Henry Ford choice on religion: “You can worship anyway you want, as long as it is the state-sanctioned way.” God help you if you don’t pray the right way! Is that freedom? Is that religious liberty?
Religious dogma has been exploited by flawed, mortal humans to interfere with governments and to justify violence and warfare throughout the history of Western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day. The Crusades. The Thirty Years War. The Holocaust. Hotel Ruwanda. Srebenica. Of course, all of these religious us-vs-them conflicts were “Holy Wars”, so it didn’t matter how many atrocities you committed or how many sinners you killed. God was on you side.
Christian Nation
The claim that the United States of American was created as a Christian Nation is simply not true. The American experiment in self-governance was unique at the time for being justified by consent of the governed rather than the divine right of kings. Religious practice is tolerated by the Constitution of the United States of America, but it is strictly outside the legal framework. The only references to religion in the United States Constitution are prohibitions against religious tests for office-holders, prohibitions against government support or endorsement of religion, and prohibitions against government suppression of religion. Believe whatever you want, but keep it out of government.
Loyalty and Patriotism
Has Donald Trump ever really done anything for anyone in the name of loyalty for anyone other than himself? He raised a large sum of money and promised he would donate it to a Veterans organization during the primaries back in 2015. He never actually made the contribution until journalists followed up and publicized his betrayal months later. When he was caught and exposed, he suddenly fulfilled the promise. I have zero faith that he would have followed through if the reporters had not stayed on the case. He has betrayed every person who ever supported him. Trump will betray you.
America-First? Where was your MAGA hat made? Where are all of those Trump-line clothes made? Where was Melania born? What about the chain-migration of Melania’s whole family?
The row upon row of headstones in Arlington are filled with… what did Donald Trump call them? Oh, that’s right: “suckers and losers”. What kind of man is he? What flavor of patriotism is that? Does he have your back? Why would you have his back?
Clear and Present Danger
Donald Trump and his followers are a clear and present danger to our cherished form of self-government. They are not done. They did not go anywhere. They failed January 6, 2021. They will try again. And again. And again.
We must name and shame everyone of them. We must call out and expose the people spread lies and misinformation and fanned flames of hatred between fellow Americans.
Study the history of Mussolini in Italy. Study the rise of fascism in Rumania. Study the history of Franco in Spain. We have seen this movie before. This is the first failed attempt at a fascist takeover. Hitler did not succeed the first time. The Beerhall Putsch failed. Hitler was jailed. He wrote “Mein Kampf” from his prison cell. Just a few years later, he took over the government of Germany and ignited hell on earth across the entire globe.
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