President Trump’s term in office is coming to an end, and it cannot come quickly enough. On January 6, 2020, the day that Congress was set to certify the votes of the Electoral College and confirm the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Trump and his minions descended into violence and an attempted coup. People will disagree on what to call this: coup, riot, insurrection, mob violence, sacking (the term “putsch” might work). But the actions are clear: Donald Trump called for a rally on January 6; he and other speakers that day called for action to be taken to stop Congress; he directed the crowd to go to the Capitol and put a stop to the election certification; and then people stormed the Capitol and stopped the Congressional action while it was in process (though only for a few hours; Congress certified the vote later that night).
It’s dishonest to sugarcoat the storming of the US Capitol building as the work of protestors or demonstrators. They are insurrectionists, criminals and domestic terrorists who sought to stop the process of certifying the vote count. They were sent by the President. Democracy was attacked. People died.
This has now led to Trump’s impeachment by the US House of Representatives. He now has the historic distinction and dishonor of being the only President to be impeached twice. The Senate will end up holding its trial after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office. One can only hope that the Republicans in the Senate will vote for conviction, just like several members of the GOP in the House of Representatives voted for impeachment.
Since election day, Trump has been spouting the lies that he won the election, that the Democrats engaged in fraud and stole the election. And millions of people are buying what he’s selling. He tried stopping the count of mail-in ballots. He tried going to court to get ballots tossed out. He tried holding press conferences (the famous Rudy Guiliani hair-dye fiasco was the most notable, but the Four Seasons Landscaping debacle was a worthy second place). He encouraged unofficial “hearings” to espouse the lies. He tried applying pressure to state and local officials in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and most brazenly in Georgia with his hour-long call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to “find” another 11,780 votes.
And when none of that worked, Trump told Pence to reject the electoral votes in Congress, which Pence – to his credit – said he had no authority to do. In the midst of this Trump called for a rally on January 6, the day that Congress certifies the electoral college vote, saying it was going to be “wild.”
With his failure to pressure Pence to reject the electoral votes or to gum up the works, Trump spoke to the crowd in DC and then sent his people to storm Congress, right in the middle of the vote count, to keep the vote for Biden and Harris from happening. It was an attempted coup/insurrection that failed. Because this was a Trump operation, it had no strategy, no plan, no organization, no thought, and therefore no success. It failed, but it was still Trump’s show, his attack on the Constitution, on American democracy. He is now undoubtedly, the traitor-in-chief.
The President is inciting the hatred and violence. He is telling lies, made up and imaginary things, and he’s convinced a lot of people to live in his same made up, imaginary world. But this has real-world consequences. Many people, including Republican members of Congress, have been saying since the election, “Don’t worry. We can humor Trump. Let him rant on Twitter. There’s no harm. January 20 will come soon and Joe Biden will be inaugurated.” How wrong those people were. We’ve learned for four years as a nation that there’s no such thing as rock bottom where Donald Trump is concerned. The Republic is not safe while he’s in office, and it will take a lot of work to make it safe once he’s out of office.
The political polarization in the country has now reached a level where there has been violence in the US Capitol building, and we don’t know what’s next. What’s worse is that the far right-wing extremist groups that have been a key part of Trump’s support, that formed a significant part of the group that came out to Washington DC to protest the election, and whose actions long pre-date Donald Trump, scored a big propaganda victory on January 6. Many of the participants that day were members of militia movement groups and white supremacist and white nationalist groups. They will be bragging about this for a long time. And this may very well mark a milestone that portends even greater right-wing violence, perhaps encouraged or prompted by a Donald Trump who, once out of office, will have no political restraints and no responsibilities.
In a just world, Trump would have resigned immediately on January 6 or been thrown out right away by Mike Pence and the Cabinet using the 25th Amendment. Once he’s out of office, he should be convicted by the Senate and barred from ever holding office again. He should also face criminal prosecution for inciting violence and insurrection, and for what is likely to be the illegal calls and meetings he held and directives he gave to others to try and overturn the free and fair election he lost. He may also face criminal charges from the state of New York for his financial dealings prior to serving in office. If this happens, this will be justice.
Maybe the events of January 6 and Trump’s second impeachment will change the minds of a growing number of the people who have supported, enabled, aided and abetted Trump for the past several years. Maybe the “Trumplicans” have burst their own balloon.
Wouldn’t it be nice…
Alexander Hamilton