We Are Not In Kansas Anymore
On January 6th 2021 President Trump – who doesn’t like the results of 2020 Presidential Election, but failed to substantiate any of his election fraud claims – orchestrated a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The scenes shown on all network channels live were mind-boggling and hard to believe. Trump supporters trampling police barricades, standing on the steps of the Capitol and then storming the Senate…. A pipe bomb. The break into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Evacuation of elected officials…. Politicians wearing protective hoods. Several people dead and several injured. It could have been a movie. But it wasn’t.
I’m definitely NOT an expert on politics, but I have the need to share my emotional reaction to the unprecedented riot on Capitol Hill. If an attempt to derail the results of a lawful Presidential Election – by inciting violence, no less! – isn’t an act of treason, or at the very least: a federal crime, what is?!
Never mind constitutional crisis and the 25th Amendment (which the Republicans in power won’t invoke): can a sitting President commit whatever crime he chooses with impunity?!
The way I see it, Twitter has shown more guts reprimanding President Trump (and at least temporarily suspending his account) than the elected officials in Washington D.C. or the police force on the ground that arrested very few of the domestic terrorists who violated the U.S. Capitol. (Just think back to the Black Lives Matter protests! Obviously, there are two different playbooks used by police officers: one for white rioters and the other for African American protesters! If anyone had any doubts before, now we’ve seen it, clearly.)
As an American optimist, I want to believe that the rule of law will prevail and Joe Biden will be sworn in as our new President as scheduled. But it is for the first time in my life that I realize that We Are Not In Kansas Anymore. Traditional American values are dead since 2016; personally, I doubt that they can be resurrected.
We live in a dangerous country. The attack on the U.S. Capitol hammered home that our values DON'T unite us. Click To Tweet
Nearly half of Americans condone crime, nepotism, corruption, lies, incompetence, negligence, war crimes, racism, family separation, etc. Nearly half of Americans support the President who brought shame and contempt on our Country while ignoring Covid-19 which – as of this writing! – claimed nearly 370,000 lives and continues causing suffering of millions of Americans.
There is no telling what event, person or statement might ignite another attempted insurrection – or other act of violence! – by Trump supporters. Politicians – who are experts at being diplomatic – blame Donald J. Trump for the violent riot on January 6th 2021. He called for it, encouraged it and praised its participants in the aftermath. Politicians describe the rioters as misinformed by the President, implying that Trump die-hards are somehow victims. That’s one way to look at them. I have to wonder whether none of them reads, watches TV news or has the ability to think. Facts don’t lie. President Trump’s lies on the other hand are quite transparent. He is a bad liar and his lies caught up with him, repeatedly. Everyone knows it. His avid supporters must know it, too. They knowingly chose fascism over democracy.
The domestic terrorists who attacked our Capitol building carried American flags. I see it as a sacrilege. They don’t represent the majority of us. If they enjoy wearing MAGA hats that’s their business. But they shouldn’t be carrying the Old Glory while attacking the Democracy for which it stands.
According to Quote Investigator:
In 1935 “The Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of New York reported on a James Waterman Wise’s speech:
. . . James Waterman Wise is telling an audience that Fascism is coming to America “not in the orthodox European guise, but wrapped in an American Flag.” In a ringing conclusion, Mr. Wise tells the crowd of 500 to beware “the super-Americanism of American Fascists.”
Senator Robert R. Reynolds of North Carolina, made a similar statement in 1938:
“Fascism is hard to recognize when it comes wrapped in the American flag.”
The “American fascism” is here. In our daily lives, we don’t always know who is who. (Radical Trump supporters tend to keep their political passions private.)
We should fear each other. We should watch our backs. We and our values are no longer safe in America. The last four years demonstrated how fragile and ineffective our Democracy is. (After all, we were unable to impeach, leave alone remove from office, Commander In-Chief who openly sold our values to foreign countries for cash and compromised everything we stand for.)
We will move forward, but we’ll remain a nation divided. With nearly 50% fascists among us, We Are Not In Kansas Anymore. This is not our fair, compassionate and noble America, anymore.
UPDATE: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram disabled President Trump’s accounts. (It’s hard to tell at the moment whether the accounts are disabled for his remaining days in office or permanently.)
