I was heading into my office when I received a Facetime call from my dear friend in Georgia. She called me wide-eyed and asked, “are you seeing this sh*t?” I immediately thought she was speaking of the Senate races. The last time I checked, Warnock was declared winner, but the race between Perdue and Ossoff had not yet been called. I did not have time to check in throughout the day. So I immediately and excitedly asked, “Ossoff won?!”
She said, “girl no, well yes, but, they are breaking into the Capitol.”
When she said that, I was confused, but for some reason the field of people who popped into my mind were the exact people who were doing it--Pro-Trump radicals, labeling themselves as patriots. They were chanting USA while carrying American Flags, Confederate Flags, Trump Flags, one woman carried a “Don’t tread on me” flag. She was trampled in the mob. Condolences.
I, of course, naturally started reading headlines and browsing stories. I was more curious to see the terminologies being applied to the group than the damage they were doing. I wanted to see what the rhetoric and rebuke would be if any rebuke at all.
And because America is America, many people were immediately saying that this is not America. This is not who we are as a nation. I chuckled every time I heard those words because, as though it was not countless lies and conspiracy theories that got us to this point, they continued to lie. This is EXACTLY America. This has long been America. And it will continue to be America if we do not get serious about the double standards that exist.
Throughout the history of this country, those same groups of people who stormed the Capitol and people before who looked just like them have long been empowered to be terrorists. Terrorists terrorize. This is not new.
However, they were allowed (yes allowed) to do it because:
1. Many of whom were present in the mob were law enforcement, military and
2. Police officers are not trained to see whiteness as terrorism. They are not trained to view whiteness as a threat. So they would never be treated as such.
Not only that, Trump’s supporters have long been speaking on starting a Civil War. They have been brainwashed to believe that that is Patriotism. They were interviewed by news outlets (read: they were FREELY given platforms/airtime) to make their agendas known. Yet and still, they were ignored. It was brushed off as them being crazy, like they are not going to do anything. They were building up on ammunition. They were organizing at local and national levels. Then they were constantly emboldened. They were emboldened by the President, the GOP senators who fanned the flames by continuously spewing voter fraud lies and also went so far as to say they would not certify Biden’s electorates. So now they feel justified in carrying out their plan. A plan that was more than likely orchestrated by people with ties to The President himself, but I digress.
This, the breach of the Capitol, is what Trump meant when he said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” This was the manifestation of that directive. But the day after he made that statement, there were so many people defending it saying he has denounced White Supremacy numerous times; or he does not believe in white supremacy because he is calling for the Ku Klux Klan to be labeled a terrorist organization. It is all smoke and mirrors. The Ku Klux Klan is an organization made up of people. Those people have a certain mindset. They do not have to be a part of the Klan to maintain those mindsets. The Klan is not the only organization that pushes those agendas. But again, I digress.
They stole and vandalized government property. But absent of these criminal acts were cries of “when the looting start, the shooting starts.” They did in fact loot. They were armed; where were the rubber bullets and tear gas? They were a threat; where were the tanks? The terrorists’ actions were egregious, hostile, and treasonous. It was a failed coup. And that coup exposed that America is at a possibly high national security risk, if we cannot even secure the Capitol, especially while it is in session. Either that, or the insurrectionists sieged the Capitol with the help of the police. (But at least we now know police can show restraint).
What we saw at the Capitol is what many of us has been saying was the President’s plan all along. He has been setting the stage for it. The President, The Narcissist in Chief, I am sure loved every minute of it. In his mind, he had people out there fighting for him. And even in the chaos, he was still making headlines, still getting so much attention. People were calling on him, like little helpless children, to quell the violence. He was once again empowered to feel like he was the only person who could stop what was going on. Instead of leaders stepping up, urging law enforcement to take further action or calling in the National Guard sooner. It was disgusting. It was bizarre. It was peak twilight zone. And all of it is on tape and America was on display, in its nastiest form for the world to see, again.
To the people who voted for Trump, you are complicit and very much a part of the problem. To the people who believe the election was stolen, your leader has you delusional. To the people who perpetuated his lies, you directly have blood on your hands. AND to the GOP’ers who have now come forth in the 12th hour to denounce Trump, his antics, followers and foolishness, to those who just resigned from their cabinet positions, you do not get brownie points for doing what should have been done so long ago. There is no redemption for refusing to back someone who is no longer beneficial to your agenda. Truth be told, many of you are only denouncing him to secure your next job or your next election victory—so you need to begin distancing yourself until you see how far reaching the ramifications will be. It has nothing to do with the people you represent or the good of the country.
Trump came in as an outsider and “ruined” the GOP from the inside out. They dismissed his rhetoric on “grabbing women by the p*ssy”, or constantly making inappropriate, sexist comments about women. They dismissed his racially charged, hate-filled rallies, among so many other things. None of this was alarming to them. After his nomination, they found ways to explain and justify it all and continuously. They allowed and enabled him to do all the damage he has done. He had the gun and they willingly gave him the bullets. And maybe the narrative would be comical, vindicatory even, if so many innocent lives were not lost during his reign of terror; or if so many families were not starving and parents jobless due to his inaction; if racial tensions were not at a boiling point, or the country almost irreversibly divided…
For four years, every opportunity he had to show compassion and unity, he decided to hate and sow discord. The most damning part was the continuous validation of the people who bought into it. They still walk among us and they still believe he was the rightful winner of the election. And there are a lot of them.
Still, even with all the destruction left, I have very little faith that this will change how America operates. This country has a long history of saying ‘it can’t happen to us’; ‘it will never be us’, ‘we are too good for that’; and even in this, with it being so fresh and present, people are rushing to get back to things as normal, without so much as really trying to deal with the heart of the matter. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. But know this, if another fascist rises to power in the United States, they will be more skilled and intact than Trump ever was. While we are busy pointing the finger at “outsiders” and others, the number one threat to this country is domestic terrorism because there is a refusal to identify, call it out and confront it.
As things come to a head (it is not over), I am not hopeful that much will change--even though the coup failed, and Dems now control the Presidency, House and the Senate. Hopefully while the Dems have this power, they strategically work to make progress, but we will see.
The GOP will willfully remain delusional and hypocritical. The only difference this time is they must strategize on how to gain a new mass of voters because currently a lot of their voting population’s faith in the voting system is eroded. They know this.
But as we forge ahead, I must warn, do not forget this tragedy America. DO NOT FORGET!
*The term Coup Klux Clan was first seen as a headline in The Times of India.
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