Yes, yesterday’s coup failed. All the available evidence indicates this due to pure luck and certainly not planning. More will come out about the dismal state of affairs that led to the very seat of government being easily breached and vandalized, putting our elected leaders under the threat of mob violence.
I’m angry about that. But that’s nothing with the searing rage I feel at what’s happened since.
The real failure is that the perpetrators are not being held accountable.
Start with the person who holds the office of President. He incited his ragtag militia to march to the capitol. He told them they had to be “strong” to “stop the steal.” He implied he’d be joining them. He said he “loved them” even as they vandalized the halls of Congress. His daughter called them patriots.
His co-conspirators further incited the crowd with specific, militant language. Other followers, one a sitting US Senator, gave fist-up salutes to the insurrectionist militia as it approached the capitol.
These insurrectionists constructed a gallows outside the capitol. They planned to “arrest” and execute elected representatives. A mob. Incited by the person holding the highest office in the land. This wasn’t a coup. It was an armed insurrection.
When civil authorities asked for assistance from the National Guard, the President denied the request even as his militia was vandalizing the nation’s capitol and threatening members of Congress with death. Accounts indicate he denied this request at least two more times before the Joint Chiefs of Staff intervened, at the behest of the leadership of Congress and the feckless Vice President (who were now evacuated to safer locations).
He can’t say didn’t know what was happening, since accounts from within the White House indicated he watched the assault on the capitol with glee.
This was armed insurrection. It was making war on the government of the United States. As with everything Donald Trump does, it failed. But it was sedition, pure and simple, incited by him, organized by him, and abetted by him. He is a dangerous, psychotic criminal.
The Congress eventually reconvened and did their constitutionally mandated duty. This despite the continuing lies and incendiary challenges to the election by the President’s followers.
Despite all the chaos yesterday, despite thousands of militia assaulting, occupying, and vandalizing our Capitol, what has happened? A grand total of 52 arrests. 52. Let that sink in.
Think what would have happened if these had not been white people. Or if they had been Muslims, or gay, or any other despised group. Bodies would have littered the streets. Bodies have littered the streets for less. But when it’s white militias supporting a President who makes war on our own government, what happens? We arrest 52 of them.
But even that’s not the biggest failure.
After all of this, after doing their minimal constitutional duty to count the electoral votes, Congress adjourned.
Of all the failures yesterday, this is most scandalous.
The leader of yesterday’s insurrection is still in office. He is still the Commander in Chief of our armed forces. He has control over the nation’s nuclear arsenal. He is a clear and present danger to the Republic, to national security, and to the very existence of the United States. He was not one of the 52 arrested even though he is the most responsible for yesterday’s events. Yet he suffers zero consequences.
In this, the most crucial hour for our nation at least since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, our government has failed us.
Despite the so-called concession from the White House at 4AM today, he continues to lie, continues to say he won, repeats the promise to “continue the struggle.” Given his history of deceit, no sane person can believe that his war the United States ended last night.
He must be removed from office.
I am at a loss to explain why immediate steps have not been taken to do this. I don’t expect our worthless Vice President and the cabinet of lackeys to do anything, but Trump organized a violent assault on Congress. I am speechless that they are doing nothing.
It’s been a long while since I’ve written a diary here, but I couldn’t be silent. I hope that our country survives to January 20, but truthfully, I don’t have much hope. What does anyone think would happen if Russia attacked a NATO ally or North Korea launched a nuclear attack in the next two weeks? We are the weakest we have been since December 7, 1941, and our enemies know it.
In the midst of this existential crisis, Congress adjourned.
That is the most egregious failure yesterday.