In November 2016, the United States elected what I saw as the absolute worst candidate for Presidential office in my lifetime. He was a man who mocked the handicapped, lied about immigrants, lied about “caravans” coming to America to take jobs, incited crowds to violence and said he would pay the court costs of those who would hit someone in opposition to him. In short, he was a divider. He has called democrats “do nothing Democrats” because they don’t subscribe to his divisive politics, and he has incted cities and communities against one another when protesters stood up against police brutality. In short, he was from the begining till now a divider and a narcisist in search of his own agenda, which I have on the suspicion side always believed was the tail wagging the dog while he enriched himself on Wall Street with simple tweets.
In 2016, Trump won the election while accusations of Russian interference flew. He won the election despite losing the popular vote by more than 3 million people. And I had to swallow my hurt and pride and accept that he was the President of this country. Yes, I supported his impeachment, when he tied Congressional funding to an ally to his reciept of “dirt” on the Bidens. That was unethical and illegal. I watched as his childish caucaus behaved like a mob and violated Capitol security protocols for publicity, and to stunt the process based on thier own lies about their exclusion from it. They were not excluded. But hey, whatever. It is not like anyone would try to behave like that again, right? It’s not like they set the example of mobbing the Capitol.
Trump’s ass-kissers in the Senate did not vote to impeach him. Susan Collins said she thought he learned his lesson. The only one with enough principle to see the evidence and rule according to his Constitutional oath was Mitt Romney. I completely disagrss with Mitt Romney, but I sure do respect his commitment to principles and to his oath.
Then when the campaign began, Trump foreshadowed for months what happened in the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021. Epiphany. It means enlightenmment, or revelation. That was the orthadox holiday of that day. It was the litteral revelation of that day what Trump really is, a coward who would incite a mob to do his bidding, who would vow to accompany them, and who would then hide away in the White House while the mob took off. Does anyone think that mob would have been as out of control if he HAD lead them? Does anyone think he was brave for setting them lose?
Apparently, Trump sat on his fat ass and watched the events unfold on TV. He apparently seemed to take glee in the mob “fighting for him.” Joe Biden beat him to the screens of America to tell the mob to go home, and then to demand Trump do the same. The true leader revealed himself.
I am also pissed that organizations like FOX News and people like Rush Limbaugh have been formenting these attitudes and lies for years with no reprocutions, and not even a hint of being required to at least identify themselvs as opinion hosts, spin doctors, propaganda, and bullshit artists.
America has egg on her face at the hands of the party that claimed to fear authoritarianism, and at the hands from which the prepper movement sprang. The people who feared black helicopters all through the 90’s have come to Washington and tried to overthrow Democracy, and the will of the majority to install their authoritarian, and that irony is not lost.
Storming the Capitol is unacceptable. Making allegations of alligations of voter fraud in order to submit allegations of voter fraud as evidence of voter fraud is unacceptable. There are Senators, such as Cruz and Hawley, who should resign before the end of today, Friday. Five lives were lost during their little riot. Those were lives that were supposed to be protected by them as US Senators, not endangered for lying’s sake. Donald Trump lost by over 8 million votes. Evidence before the election suggested that many of his former followers were sick of his shit and jumping ship in the election. We should not pretend to be surprised.
This is not a revolution. A revolution is about ideas. This was about a man. This was a revolt. The revolters were inside the Capitol, destorying more than public property, but what once made America Great independant of any one man. They destroyed our reputation, and that was public property. Well, I suppose the America Ego needed a little bringing down to realize we are just as vulnerable and just as good as anyone else in the world.
But I do believe this is a phase. I hold out hope that we can and will recover from this. I hold out hope that we can get at least a few of the tin-hats out of governance, out of the public spotlight, and we maybe educate ourselves to recognise when we are being lied to by an asshole with a god complex who thinks he can shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it.
So yes. I am pissed off. My candidate did not win in 2016, and still, I accpeted it and moved on. My candidate did not win in 2020, and I am moving on with it. The inevitable result of a constant stream of lies fed to a party by news organizations and opinion hosts has come to its inevitable result.