Donald Trump did what his enemies could never do, destroy his own legacy.
Maybe he should have stuck to tweets until his last day in office. Instead, his ego demanded live action. For weeks, he summoned his faithful to Washington, DC for a final rally -– 50,000 strong. His Congressional allies needed encouragement as they boldly objected to the Electoral College vote count that was to seal his electoral doom. But, like an incompetent general who directs artillery fire on his own troops, our Commander-in-Chief managed to lose both the battle and war within 30-minutes.
Like all Americans, I was sickened by the violation of the nation’s Capitol by a wretched mob of anarchists. They may call themselves “patriots”, but their only mission was to rampage. It was not a revolution, insurrection, or a coup – just a brainless mob that defiled our sacred republic and caused the deaths of two people. In the process, they have effectively made our democracy a one-party system for the foreseeable future.
It only took perhaps 100 of the otherwise well-meaning crowd to create chaos. It appears that Trump’s plan was to move the crowd to the Capitol grounds as the Electoral debate was taking place to impress both the legislators and the media with his grass roots support for an Electoral challenge. When the crowd arrived at the Capitol and saw only a few police officers and a flimsy fence, that’s when the frontline anarchists made their move.
How 50,000 protestors assembled in our capital without adequate police preparation is at the heart of this outrageous story. We know that the Capitol Police refused previous offers for reinforcements and warnings from the NY Police Dept., perhaps because Trump rallies had no history of violence. Were there strong barricades and adequate police, it is doubtful the few anarchists would have entered the Capitol.
Notwithstanding, both Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani deserve censure. The punishment must fit the crime – more a riot than an insurrection. A livid House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appointed Jewish-Italian Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) to draft an impeachment document, an understandable but impractical action. Democrats did not impeach Lyndon Johnson for the carnage of Vietnam. W. Bush wasn’t impeached for the catastrophic Iraq War. Trump will be out of office before any verdict.
Does the fire of partisan hatred need more fuel? Has everyone forgotten that this cycle of violence began with the shooting of Italian American Minority Whip Steven Scalise (R-LA) by a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2017? Have we all forgotten last summer’s nightmare of leftist rioting and looting in our major cities, excused by Democrats as a quest for racial justice as they bailed out arsonists and looters. Remember Nancy Pelosi’s dismissal of the destruction of public statues as “people do what they do?” For Trump supporters (the peaceful ones) the protest was about election transparency.
Trump’s refusal to concede the election right up to the Electoral count last Wednesday was not illegal. Had Justice Samuel Alito persuaded his colleagues on the Supreme Court to accept a hearing of Trump’s election grievances last month, the country might have been spared last Wednesday’s assault. Beyond questions of voter fraud hangs the very real accusation that states circumvented their own constitutions, and that of the United States, in their haste to implement mail-in balloting. Last Wednesday, Republican senators and congressmen were only asking for an investigative election commission.
How many Americans know that Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) challenged the Electoral count in 2005 (Bush vs. Kerry) because Ohio didn’t have enough voting machines? That’s small potatoes compared to the 2020 mail-in ballot issue that added 27 million “questionable” votes in the swing states alone. Shouldn’t this be addressed before the next election and next explosion?
Trump will soon be gone and one party – in an unholy alliance with the unbalanced news media, monopolistic social media, liberal academia, and the utopian left – has sworn “to cleanse” this nation of Trump’s followers, enablers, and apologists, and to “change America!” (per Chuck Schumer, D-NY). Even corporate America has bankrolled this alliance. How can any post-Trump Republican Party crack this wall? Moderate John McCain couldn’t do it in 2008, nor Mitt Romney in 2012.
The only impediment remaining to this brave new world may be lonely, Trump-hating Joe Manchin (orig. Mancino) D-WV, who has a message for fellow Democrats who think they can legislate sweeping, liberal change: not on his watch. We’ll see. -JLM
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