A False Equivalency

Being heroic for the cause of overthrowing the Constitution of the United States is not equivalent to risking personal danger for the cause of defending human dignity and justice.  We don’t celebrate the bravery of the perpetrators of 9/11 or of suicide bombers or of other terrorists. Though these individuals construe their actions as the highest patriotism to what they love, their actions are a form of violent extremism that must be sanctioned and stopped.

The generals and soldiers of the Confederate Army may have been brave individuals, but they were fighting to retain their inhumane privilege to treat other human beings as property, for the right to be able to inflict bodily harm on men, women and children whose skin was a different color. Their choice to give their lives to the cause of brutality does not make them heroes. The Confederate flag that flew over the Capital along with Trump’s personal flag is a symbol of one of the sources of Trump’s power—the desperate fear of some whites of a society in which the whiteness of their skin does not guarantee power over others whose skin is a different hue.

A friend spoke last night of their anger at the mob that overran the Capital building on Wednesday. Then they remembered their participation in demonstrations to end the Vietnam War in the early 70’s and said they would have welcomed the opportunity to storm the Capital building at that point. They talked about the humanity of those breaching the capital and the need for understanding.

This is true—each person in the mass of people that stormed the Capital is a human being and was most likely acting in a manner that they viewed as brave. They were following Donald Trump’s explicit directive to prevent the ‘stealing of the election.’ In their minds, they saw their actions as trying to ‘preserve our democracy.’

But the voter fraud that Trump and other Republicans have been talking about has no basis in fact. Despite unprecedented scrutiny and countless recounts, no significant fraud has been found anywhere in the country—not one county or precinct has been found to have unfairly voted, counted or reported. Not one.

The purpose of those who stormed the Capital on Wednesday was to overthrow the legitimate result of the Presidential election and thereby overthrow the rightfully elected government of the United States. This was an act of domestic terrorism aided and abetted by Donald Trump and the Congressional Representatives and Senators that have promulgated these unfounded allegations in the face of all evidence.

Sadly, there is increasing evidence of intentional efforts on the part of the Capital Police leadership and the Department of Defense to ‘stand down’ in the face of the expected violent demonstrations. The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon, led by Trump sycophant Christopher Miller as Secretary of Defense, set strong limits on the District guardsmen that contributed to the catastrophic failure of security at the Capital on Wednesday.

Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer have jointly called for Pence to evoke the 25^th Amendment and remover Trump from power. Failing that, they are threatening to begin impeachment proceedings. Trump has been banned from Facebook until after the transition of power and a number of members of his administration are resigning in protest. This is all good news.

Whatever happens over the next ten days, Trump’s power will continue. But the growing number of Republicans who have finally stood up and repudiated the logical conclusion to the Trumpism that they have supported for four years is encouraging.

Meanwhile, Biden has been a steady presence. He directly and immediately denounced the violence and has continued gathering his team and preparing to assume the reins of a country in crisis. Trump’s seditious actions have directly contributed to a emerging realization of the true danger he poses to this country and, perhaps, to a willingness of Republicans to work with Biden for the good of the country in the days and months ahead.

And, lost in all this drama, buried far down the front page of the NY Times, is the article ‘US Sets New Death and Daily Case Records’ that reports pandemic deaths in the United States have exceeded 4,000 per day for the first time since the virus began. As these current historic events get to be written down in history books, I suspect the lead story and Trump’s greatest culpability will be for the hundreds and thousands of deaths that have come from his refusal inability to lead the country in a united response to this pandemic.

No happy ending this morning, except to continue to appreciate the determined actions of the majority of Senate and House to validate the election, to condemn the violence Trump has incessantly incited and to move us closer to the end of his disastrous tenure.