Thoughts on the Anniversary of the Trump Insurrection

It’s been a year.

One year ago today the United States of America was attacked by internal enemies.

One year ago today a disgraced, two-time-popular-vote-losing, justly impeached (and soon to be twice impeached – an American record), openly corrupt, calculatingly cruel and overtly fascist president opened the gates for an insurrection whose sole purpose was to preserve his palsied grip on power in direct contradiction to the clearly expressed will of the American people and the decisive outcome of the Constitutional process of electing a new president.

One year ago today American patriots watched in horror as this president’s hell-bound minions swarmed into the US Capitol in a violent attempt to keep in power in the hands of the exact sort of tyrant the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution to keep it out of. This treason had been planned at the highest level of the disgraced president’s government and was supported by insurgents within Congress itself, and as more evidence comes out this only becomes more obvious.

One year ago today this treason nearly succeeded in destroying the American republic. But for the actions of a few principled men and women who refused to bow down to the screeching demands of an authoritarian madman and his raging mob – many of them now actively being purged from office by the Republican Party – the United States of America would be a dictatorship today, a hellscape of right-wing extremism and a grim warning to humanity that even well-established civilizations can collapse into darkness.

It very nearly happened. It can still happen. There are a lot of people in this country working very hard to make it happen and who will gladly destroy anything or anyone who gets in their way.

While some of the foot soldiers of this insurrection have gone to jail, the leaders remain largely unpunished and free to continue their assault on the United States of America. They remain free to walk about the country. They remain in Congress. They remain on the airwaves.

They will not stop until they are successful or destroyed.

It is up to American patriots to make sure they are not successful.

Every thrice-damned insurrectionist who set foot in the Capitol building that day must be brought to justice and removed from the possibility of taking part in any such actions in the future, and every would-be tyrant who planned, incited, and led that insurrection – from the top down – must be made into examples fit to deter similar treason in future generations.

The stakes are clear.

An insurrection that goes unpunished is called a dress rehearsal.

An insurrection dealt with is called an object lesson.

Your choice, my fellow Americans.

But choose quickly. The lamps are going out all across the United States, and whether they will be lit again in my lifetime is an open question.