I mean, ya gotta write about it. They’ll write about it for decades. Centuries? In 2253, second graders will still learn about the day the president told an angry mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. Of course, that won’t happen, humanity will be long gone. Baked and broiled in our ever-heating atmosphere. Only the cockroaches survive this.
Words matter. This isn’t a surprise. Look at the steady stream of news articles starting in 2015 suggesting that Donald Trump’s language is making the country more dangerous for religious and ethnic minorities. Type Trump into the search bar on this blog. I’ve been saying this since the beginning.
Lot’s of finger pointing at the Capitol Police. “Don’t look at us,” they say, “who could have known this would happen?” Gimme a break. Congress was tallying the electoral vote count at the same time a planned riot met on the door step. How could they not know this would happen.
Over the past few days, high-level administration officials began bailing out of the White House. It makes me wonder why. Why now? Why not when Trump mocked a disabled reporter? Why not after his famous grab ‘em by the pussy recording? Why not when he called African nations shithole countries? Why not when he extorted the president of Ukraine? Why not when he told the Proud Boys to stand by?
See where this is going? Since 2015, for six years, Trump has issued an ongoing torrent of disqualifying remarks. Things no president would ever say. “Fine people on both sides.” “Americans who died in war are suckers and losers.” “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong… We will never give up. We will never concede. Our country has had enough. We’re not going to take it anymore.”
This last bit is what he told his supporters as they prepared to march to the Capitol while the vote took place. Later, he told the group that ransacked the Capitol “we love you, you are very special.”
Yeah, yeah, so what’s the point. Trump spent the last six years spewing crude, demeaning, hateful language. And people listen, they absorb. And then they imitate. Trump’s done more to degrade American civic culture than anyone in history. No, it’s not a shock that things blew up at the Capitol. The only surprise is that it took so long for it to happen.
The night that Trump was named the presumptive nominee for the GOP, I tweeted out “today reminds me of the start of the second chapter of a post-apocalyptic novel.” I regret those words. I joked about something I knew was true. There was no question in my mind that democracy was in peril.
There’s a call to pull Trump out of office. To impeach him or invoke the twenty-fifth amendment before he does something really stupid. Don’t forget, the guy controls the largest nuclear arsenal on earth. I say this can’t happen soon enough. Yes, I’m a little worried about an unhinged president at the helm, but more importantly, our leaders, Republicans and Democrats, need to show the world we’ve had enough.
We’re finally ready to change.
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Previously Published on jefftcann.com and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: ruperto miller on Flickr