A Step Towards Sanity and Hopefully Safety

It is Wednesday and I am listening on and off to the speeches in the House of Representatives for and against the impeachment of Donald Trump.  I listen to the Republicans and I am struck by how easy it is for them to disregard the truth.  And that, of course, is the root cause and issue of all of this.  Truth. 

The Republicans rise to speak and obfuscate the issue at hand with accusations that the Democrats perpetrated fraud and violence last summer when the protesters in the streets were imploring the country to make Black Lives Matter.  They make all sorts of accusations about incidents that they believe show how Democrats sow disunity and how they lie about Trump's election shenanigans with the Russians.  There are echoes of Trump's claim that it's all a hoax.  It seems like anything they can imagine to make it seem like Democrats reject truth and they are responsible for the insurrection is what their game is.  They do not honor Truth.

 

The Truth about what has happened that has led to this moment is that our President has sown the seeds of disinformation about our 2020 election for the past year!  He has broadcast his disdain for mail-in voting, claiming it is all fraudulent.  Where is the proof of that?  And BTW, where is the proof of his claim that the election of 2016 was fraudulent?  He even created a 'commission' to investigate his claimed fraud.  No evidence was ever presented.  The commission was disbanded because it never produced one iota of proof.  

 

He told his followers that unless he was elected, the election would be rigged.  How is that statement

even possible?  What proof did he have?   None.  And yet the current Republican house members bought into this Big Lie.  Even now as the impeachment vote is going forward, 197 members of the House still, --STILL-- are defending the Big Lie.  Now all of a sudden it is the Republicans who are claiming we need to unify.  Unification has NEVER been on Trump's agenda.  His agenda was dis-union.  His agenda was to turn all of us against one another.  The Republicans rise to honor the Big Lie.  All of those 197 Republican legislators have chosen to be on the side of disenfranchising millions of voters.  They want us to disregard the results of a free and fair election to install the person THEY want even though that person lost.  These are not patriots because they reject democratic principles.

 

Since the election, Trump has harangued that the election was 'stolen' from him.  It was a lie.  No one stole his election.  They simply voted against him.   All his lawyers presented whatever cases they could assemble to demonstrate that there was fraud.  They took those claims to court and every court--over 60 court cases in multiple states where there were claims presented----all rejected those claims because of lack of evidence or proof.  It was all a lie.  And yet Trump kept trumpeting the Big Lie.  He used it to stoke his racist followers, promising them if they would stand strong and reject the electorate's will and the free and fair election, then he would remain in power.  He was right.  If his followers could rise up and stop the electoral process, then in fact he could remain in power.

 

He had a plan.  As the process inexorably continued and the courts rejected his lie time after time, he used each step in the process to scream foul and that the election was stolen from him.  His followers blindly believed him.  And he called them to come to Washington to stop the final tabulation of the electoral process.  He told them to come and stop the thieves from stealing the election.  "Be strong, do battle, take no prisoners!"  Then he lit the flame last Wednesday and his mob attacked the Capitol trying to stop the counting of the electoral votes; hang Mike Pence ( who refused to abrogate his Constitutional role); kill Nancy Pelosi and take over the Capitol.  6 people died at his hands while he watched, bemused, from the White House as call after call came in begging for his help to stop the carnage.  He was unmoved.

 

What we still have yet to discover is who all the Trump followers were who helped plan this insurrection; helped survey the planning;  helped ease the way for the mob to enter the Capitol.  We will discover who they are and they will be punished.

 

As far as those 197 seditionists who still remain in the Congress?...well, we will see about them.  They

claim to be patriots.  They are not patriots.  They want to cancel an election and impose their leader in place of a duly elected President.  That is sedition.  We know that their legacy will be the seditious support of an insurrection.  Their legacy will be forever tarnished by their treason.  Their families and progeny will refer to them in the future as the traitors who tried to overthrow the government in support of a twice impeached President who endeavored to overthrow the results of an election and disregard the will of millions of citizens.  They have rejected democracy and we will call them out for it.

 

Today, the United States of America took a step toward the salvation of democracy by forcefully rejecting the most clear and present danger to our republic, Donald J. Trump.  Letting him remain in power is terribly dangerous.  Until Joe Biden puts his hand on the bible, we are vulnerable.

 

And what is really concerning is that we may not be done with this violence yet.  Trump's followers still want to try to overthrow our democracy.  There are chilling predictions of further armed insurrection.  Let's hope our defenses are ready for the crazies!

 

 

God Save America and God Bless America!