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Friday, January 8, 2021

Is the Worst Over?

For the first year of Trump’s presidency, many Americans thought he could not go lower, but as each of the last four years has passed, we saw that there are no depths to his depravity. His depravity was on display to its greatest extent on Wednesday when he incited an insurrection by his followers to attack the Capitol. The most significant problem America now faces is not Donald Trump. Too many in Congress and a growing number of people in his administration have had enough. Yet there are still people like Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and most House Republicans who continue to support him. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and reported by Fox News and other pro-Trump news outlets tried to claim Antifa, not Trump loyalists, were behind the attack on the Capitol. A friend and coworker of mine, who is a fellow Alabamian, texted me in response to the claims that the insurrectionists were Antifa in disguise and said, “They were just showing some footage on the news, and I was like, these people LOOK LIKE TRUMP SUPPORTERS. Antifa kids don’t have that Southern redneck look. It’s just like if you know rednecks, you know these people are true blue rednecks!” She is right. I grew up surrounded by rednecks. I recognize them when I see them. The people who led the terrorist attack were, without a doubt, Trump supporters.

 

Honestly, I have to wonder how people can watch and read Fox News, Newsmax, and other pre-Trump news outlets. While many of these people are weak-minded and, let’s just say it, stupid, not all of them are. My mother is an intelligent woman. She spent 30 years as a public health official and ten more years as an expert on pandemic response. She knows better than anyone I know the realities of a pandemic. Her sister, my aunt, died of the H1N1 flu. Yet, even with Donald Trump’s criminally negligent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, she continues to support him. Not only that, but she believes all the stupidity she hears on Fox News and Newsmax. I can’t even believe she watches Newsmax. So, I have to wonder, do these media outlets have some type of subliminal messaging or hidden hypnotic device in their media? Hitler studied mesmerism and mysticism to understand how to maximize his control over people. I do not doubt that if we were in Germany at any time between 1933 and 1945, Fox News and these same Trump supporters would be behind and openly supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

 

Luckily, the U.S. Constitution does not have the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution. There is no Article 48, the Notverordnung (emergency decree) provision, which gave Germany's president broad powers to suspend civil liberties with a flawed system of checks and balances. Trump has often claimed that such special powers exist, but there are no such provisions in the U.S. Constitution. When Presidents have overstepped the bounds of their office, they have been stopped by Congress and the courts. It was not always done quickly, but democracy eventually prevailed every time. Donald Trump has twelve days left as president. While I do not believe Congress will be successful in removing him from office through impeachment, and with Cabinet members already resigning over the Capitol insurrection, it is doubtful that the Vice President and the Cabinet will invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. I also believe that Trump will never resign on his own. There are twelve days of fear ahead of us.

 

If the Republican Party does not distance itself from Donald Trump and punish those who are continuing to support him, then the Republican Party will cease to exist. There is a civil war within the Republican Party, and the party is in its final death throes. Can it survive this insurrection and, until Wednesday, the unwavering loyalty to Trump? I hope that Wednesday's terrorist attack by Trumpists will force the Republican Party to reassess itself. As long as hate groups continue to exist in the United States, then Trumpism will continue. Like a cancerous tumor, Trump and his hate-filled supports need to be removed from having any influence in the United States government. If that takes revoking the FCC licenses from Trumpist media outlets and banning them from social media, then I am all for it. I do not believe that would be censorship because these outlets have become a public danger and are openly fomenting insurrection. Everyone who had a role in Wednesday's insurrection and terrorist attack needs to be rooted out to ensure that democracy is restored and will continue.


If there is any doubt that Donald Trump believes he is the Republican Party should have been put to rest Wednesday when Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, explicitly said as much at his father’s “Save America” protest, where Trump incited the insurrection at the Capitol. “This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Trump Jr. said, and then warned Republicans who did not support his father’s efforts to overturn democracy: “We’re coming for you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”

 

The events of the past four years culminated in an open insurrection and an attack on the U.S. Capitol. I am profoundly saddened, incredibly angry, and terrified of what will happen over the next twelve days. I do not fool myself that the worst is over. Sadly, I think the worst has just begun unless swift action is taken to end Trumpism.

9 comments:

  1. My first reaction to what you say about the Republican party is that we saw several Republican senators withdraw their objections to counting the electors. I have some hope that the die-hard Trump loyalists won't be in complete control of the party after this.

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  2. "I have some hope that the die-hard Trump loyalists won't be in complete control of the party after this." Ronna McDaniel, a total Trump loyalist, stooge, and sycophant has just been unanimously re-elected chair of the Republican Party. Trumpists won't give up control - without it they are lost, Roderick

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  3. Roderick, you too the words out of my mouth. I was about to reply almost the exact same thing. As long as Trump is able to choose the RNC chair, he will remain in control of the party. Unless they can convince Ronna Romney McDaniel (Trump convinced her to drop the Romney in her name because he doesn't like her uncle) to resign and allow new leadership, Trump will continue to control the Republican Party. It looked like power was slipping out of Trump's grasps, but now Republicans are backtracking, rewriting history, and refusing to followthrough with removing Trump from power. They are still cowards and like the rats they are, they are running from a sinking ship, but the rats will still drowned. They did this to America. The only Republicans who can continue on as Republicans would be those who opposed Trump from the very beginning and not many of them exist.

    Now Trump has his own conspiracy driven fools claiming that he has succumbed to the deep state and that he has betrayed them. What they are too stupid to realize is that Trump never cared about them, and he would discard them when they were no longer useful. Their coup failed, so he has no use for them anymore. Time will tell if the Trumpists will fully turn on him, or if just like the Republican Party, the Trumpists are having their own ciivl war. Right now, they are dangerous and confused, and that is a danger to all of us.

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  4. Joe, absolutely correct. Also - it is clear that far from Trump coming to accept the reality of losing the election he became more and more delusional about "being robbed" until he promoted the disaster on Wednesday. The outcome of that disaster leaves him utterly disoriented and out of touch and I suspect (and hope) that the loss of power, made real by having to leave the White House, will consign him permanently to a dream world. Roderick

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  5. Roderick, I am fine with him being consigned permanently to a dream world, as long as it doesn't become a nightmare for us.

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  6. Joe, "dream world" is just being polite. "lunatic asylum" is the impolite. Roderick

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  7. Roderick, LOL, maybe they’ll forget to pad the room, and he’ll hurt himself.

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  8. Joe, he will be going to jail and hope they will not take his belt off.....
    Remembering Bernstein...

    Well I'm sorry to say it because it's not very Christian but after all he did and ALL the more than 360 000 Americans who died, I don't think that he should have what he deserves.

    Anyway, he's such a coward that he couldn't even have the guts to arm himself.

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  9. My fear is that Trump will continue his noise over the next few years with the intention of undermining Joe Biden. I'm hearing that much of the Trump family's social circle in NY and FL are distancing themselves. Hopefully they are shunned. He will have far less power once he is out of office and kept off Twitter. If he continues these rallies with his 70 million supporters, then there will be more chaos.

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