Joyce Vance wrote a great article on her substack yesterday.
Within Vance’s moving tribute and memories of the events of 9-11-2001, she recalled
We were unprepared, but we responded and came together in remarkable, heartfelt ways. A Boston-based flight attendant who had to drive from Chicago to get home told the New York Times a few weeks later that as she drove, “people had put American flags up on every single overpass all the way from Chicago to Boston.”
But Vance further laments that in the wake of that history, when we all felt so united as Americans in the face of that adversity and attack, that as a country:
We have not come together. We are deeply divided as a country that has come under attack and continues to be threatened by the tide of Trumpism that continues to have a hold on something like 30% of the country and the white supremacist domestic terror groups that Trump has embraced into the fold.
Vance also accurately brings to the fore the threat that our democracy is facing as, rather than rebuke Trump and his actions, his party continues to fall in line and defend and back anything he does, even as he faces trial for his crimes, even those that know the truth.
So this bit of history on what we’ve witnessed over the past 7 years since 2015 seems worth quoting and with links in case anyone doubts its veracity or maybe just needs a quick bit of proof to hold onto the truth in an era of rapid gaslighting and facts falling down the memory hole. Like 9-11, it was that bad. And we need to be aware of what’s happening right now.
Sometimes, and especially with the daily barrage of inane behavior from Trump, it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. But Trump continues to show us who he is. He is still the person who rode down an escalator and dubbed Mexicans criminals and rapists. He is still the man who made fun of a reporter with a disability, criticized a federal judge over his ethnicity, and stood by, heartless, after he put policies in place that ripped babies from their mothers’ arms at the border. He might as well have been the one wearing the “I really don’t care, do u?” jacket Melania sported on her visit to the border.
I’ve lost track of all the times Trump named, implicitly targeting, people who served our government, like Colonel Alexander Vindman and FBI agent Pete Strzok. Trump relentlessly attacked people who should have been his political partners from the loyal opposition. His refusal to refrain from doing so led to the brutal attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband. Yet Trump stood silent as an attack was launched on the Capitol with members of the Congress, including those from his own party, inside. And his comments, his unfair, untrue, comments about Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss damaged their lives and for what purpose? So Trump could hold onto power. That’s what all of this is about. It’s never about service, and it’s not about making America great. It’s about Trump and only Trump.
Our media is doing a terrible job of pointing out the clear differences in a normal politician and an indicted serial liar, who both are running for office. They point to fleeting polls that show how Trump and Biden are neck and neck, and go on about Biden’s unpopularity when the leading Republican candidate is facing trial for 91 felony indictments. The false equivalence is disgusting.
Our only hope is that the American people stay vigilant to the truth, and not let this Orwellian nightmare spin down the memory-hole of false narratives and selective memories.
Like September 11th, 2001, we must never forget.