“Grab ‘em by the pussy.”
“American Carnage”
“Very fine people on both sides.”
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
Covid-19 is “a hoax.”
Of course, there’s much more. Through it all, nearly half of our population stood unwaveringly behind him. Some justified it, insisting that conservative policies were all that mattered. Some denied it, anxious to bury their heads in alternative facts and make-believe conspiracy theories. Some took his presidency at face value, embracing the opportunity to finally put their racism on full display, proudly celebrating their own ignorance. Many more, the privileged, stayed the course with amoral self-interest.
Then came Election Day. Even weeks before, he telegraphed his strategy, warning that if he lost, the election was surely rigged against him. He lost. He insisted he’d won in a “landslide,” certain that his fantasy would become reality through the same blind loyalty his supporters had always shown him, even through his most despicable transgressions.
We all saw it coming, whether we admit it or not. What other end could be expected but an explosion of violent sedition? He knew it, he enflamed it and he celebrated as our Democracy was overwhelmed by a mindless mob, if only for a few hours.
Only now do we see some of his supporters expressing what should have been said all along. Trump’s malignant presidency of lies and hatred and utter incompetence can no longer be plausibly denied. So, in coded expressions of “violence is never justified” in the “sacred halls of our Democracy,” some of the mob finally turns away from the leader they so intentionally followed, right to the brink. Their only choices now, try to save face with contrition, but as little as possible, or continue to follow him into oblivion.
As compared with the whole of Trump’s America, only a tiny fraction of bad actors actually stormed the Capitol that day. Still, the rest should not be so easily dismissed. Donald Trump is transparent. He is a man of no character or conscience. Lies and manipulation are his stock and trade. Democracy is nothing to him but a thin veil, hardly covering his fragile but monstrous ego. It’s all there, impossible to deny.
To all of you who cast your lot with evil, who ignored or justified or reveled in his angry destruction of decency and the rule of law, you are just as guilty as the fools who stormed the Capitol. You enabled a sociopath in the name of money or religion or fear or self-loathing. Trump’s darkness didn’t just suddenly descend upon us on January 6th. You hid in that darkness with him the whole time. It’s not likely that you’ll emerge any time soon. When you’re ready, the light of democracy is shining. You ought to try it. Out here, we can finally see the future.