This is how democracy dies. This is how an autocratic, totalitarian government is born.
When armed insurrectionists disrupt the peaceful transfer of democratic power by breaking into the seat of government.
When the President employs seditious rhetoric again and again and again and calls these insurrectionists “special.”
When millions of Americans have chosen not to respect the democratic process because they would rather believe outlandish lies that have been disproven time and time again instead of accept that they lost.
When political leaders violate their constitutional oath by trying to overthrow the results of the most free and fair election in modern history.
When the flag of the nation – which was once held in such reverence that it was used to call kneeling in protest unpatriotic – was replaced on the Capitol by the flag of a tyrannical madman.
When the Executive Branch refuses to deploy the National Guard to defend the seat of government under attack.
This was not a protest, peaceful or otherwise. It was treason. It was rebellion. It was a coup.
And it wasn’t a surprise to most of us.
All of this has laid bare the essential tenet of Trumpism – and a recurring undercurrent of American history – that there is a group of Americans who believe that they own this country. That it is theirs to run without a constitution or laws or equal rights for all Americans.
And the truth is that every single person who endorsed him, encouraged him, kowtowed to him, or simply looked the other way over the last four years is complicit in today’s events.
So no, these Americans who found their voice today did not rise to the historical moment. They created it.
Basking in their newfound righteous indignation at an attack on democracy and their new-found fealty to the majestic principles of the Constitution, their words are hollow and meaningless because they have aided and abetted a four year assault on all of the underpinnings that buttress our democracy.
This is not the first time our nation has found itself in the midst of a moral and political tumult. The Revolutionary period of the 1770’s, the Jacksonian revolt of the 1820’s, the Progressive movement of the 1890’s, and the Social Revolution of the 1960’s were other chapters in our history where distrust for established institutions melded with moral outrage to allow those previously excluded from power to rise up and take control of the national dialogue. And we have always come out better for it.
The question now is whether this is the birth of something insidious or whether it is the death throes of a nihilistic death pact with authoritarianism.
Democracy doesn’t die because one tyrannical, morally bankrupt, power hungry king incites sedition. Democracy doesn’t die because armed insurrectionists charge the Capitol.
Democracy dies because millions of Americans have been content to look the other way.
#LoveHard
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