Grievance and Insurrection

 

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

On November 3, 2020, the American people went in historic numbers to their polling places, or in some cases, cast their ballots and mailed them to the appropriate authorities. Many Americans, myself included, carried with them concerns about the Trump administration’s ineptitude, self-enrichment, egregious corruption, as well as its failure to manage the largest public health crisis in over 100 years. Prior to the election, Donald Trump had asserted that if he lost the election, it would be because the election was stolen from him. A significant number of his supporters and right-wing media supported this contention.

The ballots were counted. Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winners, with over 7 million more popular votes than Trump and Pence. On the Saturday following the election, Biden and Harris were projected to have won the election by all major media outlets.

From election night forward, Donald Trump refused to concede, insisting the election had been stolen. His campaign filed dozens of lawsuits contesting the election. With few exceptions, the lawsuits failed. No evidence of any consequential fraud was ever found. On December 14^th, each state certified its results. The last hurdle would be on January 6, 2021 when Congress would assemble in joint session to certify the electoral college results.

Throughout the entire post-election period, Trump continued to insist that the election had been stolen, encouraging his followers to assemble, encouraging his supporters in Congress and state legislatures to somehow overturn the election.

On Sunday, January 3, 2021, it was revealed that Trump had called upon the Georgia Secretary of State to ‘find’ votes to overturn the election results in Georgia. The conversation was taped, and the tape provided to the media. In spite of this revelation, Trump continued unabated, assisted by several dozen members of Congress, to insist that the election was stolen. He encouraged his vice-president Mike Pence, to overturn the result.

On January 6, 2021, a massive crowd of Trump supporters assembled in our nation’s capital to protest the certification of the election. As the Congress began its work, a large mob of several thousand Trump supporters swarmed up the steps of the Capitol building and overwhelmed the police and began vandalizing, and in some cases, searching for certain legislators with the intent of inflicting harm, or even death. It took several hours to clear out the mob and restore order. Congress reassembled at 8:00 PM and by 3:30 AM the next morning completed the certification of the election. Sadly, during the process, a significant number of GOP legislators cynically clung to the fantasy that the election had been stolen, including 8 GOP senators and over 100 representatives.

So, what are we to learn from this series of events? Who is accountable for this travesty?  Clearly, our nation has many problems.

·         What occurred on January 6^th was an act of insurrection. To call it anything else is simply a lie.

·         Trump whipped up and encouraged the mob, assisted by Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Donald Jr., Giuliani, and Mo Brooks at the very least, assisted in promoting the fantasy of a stolen election by several other members of Congress and several right-wing media outlets.

·         A certain percentage of any population will believe a lie if it coincides with their belief system and is generally unmoved by facts or evidence contrary to that belief system.

·         A substrate of the population, nursing grievances about social evolution (equal rights for women, minorities, LGBT persons, etc.) were brought to the forefront and even celebrated, during the Trump administration, revealing a true danger to the fabric of our republic.

·         It is not beyond the realm of possibility that this ‘grievance group’, assisted by right wing media and that percentage of the population that can be easily manipulated will continue to cause violence and civil unrest.

·         The so-called ‘guardrails’ of our system of checks and balances need to be strengthened. We cannot allow a demagogue like Trump (albeit someone less inept) to ever achieve power again.

It goes without saying that the reactionary resistance to social change is always an obstacle to be overcome. There is never a time when “we’ve always done it that way” is a valid argument against anything. The idea that a race of people, a gender, a class of persons is somehow inferior to another is laughable on its face, and adherents of such ideas should suffer public humiliation and worse for their adherence to such ideas. This segment of the ‘grievance’ crowd object to social change based on the belief that life is a zero-sum game, the ultimate falsehood. Such people believe that if other groups advance socially, it is at their expense.

It also goes without saying that what one believes is far less important than how one behaves. These days there are many, many people who call themselves ‘Christians’ who fail miserably to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. They interpret scripture as they see fit, and their belief system, however misguided, is more important than how they behave toward others. True Christians do not judge, and do not hate, any more than do true Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. This segment of the ‘grievance’ crowd believes that social evolution is evil and wrong because it contravenes their beliefs; beliefs which are clearly misinterpretations, cherry-picked from their belief system.

Finally, it goes without saying that people who are willing to accept lies from their media sources, who refuse to investigate and verify, and who refuse to think critically, are as dangerous as supremacists and misguided religious zealots. People who accept opinion as fact, are misguided, and the outlets that peddle opinion as fact and alarmist rhetoric, be they right-wing or left, do not deserve to exist. All speech is not free, especially hateful speech. This segment doesn’t believe anything that they have not been told by someone else, most likely a right-wing media outlet or a fundamentalist preacher. 

We have a sufficient number of staggering problems in our country as it is without having to deal with an insurrection based on fallacious and false notions, and the utterings of a malignant narcissistic sociopath.

So, what can we do as a country to change things?

• ·         Bring back the fairness doctrine. Without impinging on anyone’s right of free expression, this will insure that blatant lies and propaganda cannot gain traction without immediately being disputed.
• ·         Purge the political parties of seditionists, liars, and thieves, with emphasis on the GOP, whose sins of late have been the most egregious.
• ·         Strengthen oversight at all levels of government.
• ·         Introduce term limits throughout government, including the Federal Judiciary
• ·         Prosecute all who participated or encouraged the January 6 insurrection to the limit of the law.
• ·         Impeach and convict Donald Trump, making it impossible for him to ever again have any political power. Those who say that would further encourage violence are cowards and the argument is self-serving. The very real possibility for further violence exists regardless of whether Trump is impeached and removed or not.

We must finally begin to live up to the ideals upon which this nation was founded. We must stop demonizing one another. We must embrace one another as human beings united in an effort to really make this country great, and our planet safe for all people. We have, to some extent, lived a lie for nearly two and a half centuries. Treating African Americans, Latinos, indigenous peoples, and women as ‘inferior’ was part of the lie. We must be honest about our history and reconcile ourselves to the fact that ‘American Exceptionalism’ is a myth. We will not be exceptional until we create a society where all persons have an opportunity to succeed, to be heard and to thrive.