There’s a cocktail of despair and outrage that has been building inside of me since January 6. And with each passing day, that mix becomes more potent.
The video above was posted onto Parler on the day that it happened, and was somehow retreived from the archives. I won’t pretend to know about the technology involved, but my guess is that the treasonous asshole who shot the footage from inside the lawless mob and wanted to show the world what a good thing he had done (and there’s no way that it wasn’t a “he” either) had second thoughts, and subsequently tried to delete the evidence of his outrageous and unAmerican behavior. Like those who ransacked the Capitol building that day, and then went back to the airport the next day, content to fly back home and pretend they weren’t complicit in what happened. But the evidence remains, and always will. The internet is forever, after all.
When the House of Representatives took up the matter of impeaching Donald Trump for his role in setting this mob loose on the workings of our constitutional government, most Reublican lawmakers backed away from doing the courageous thing.
“Let’s heal as a nation” they told us, with a straight and serious face.
“Let’s come together a nation” they counseled us all.
They had all the magnamity of a bully who tries to escape accountability by appealing to the weakness (as he sees it) of the one who was victimized.
A strange but relevant example of this is the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special where Peppermint Patty (who I never liked very much as a character) complains about Charlie Brown’s efforts to provide her and the others with something resembling a Thanksgiving meal (or a “Friendsgiving” as we might call it today). Her friend Marcy then shames her into realizing that Charlie Brown was doing his best, and whatever dim inner light Peppermint Patty had was activated, just long enough to extend her hand to Charlie Brown and declare “apologies accepted, Chuck old boy?” Never mind that she failed to offer an apology, or any sort of real contrition, to begin with. The best she could do is have Marcy articulate some mushy attempt at remorse on her behalf.
Peppermint Patty merely wanted to put the episode behind her, and so she put the onus on Charlie Brown to forgive and forget. He did, of course, because that makes for better television than his telling her off and pointing out that rude behavior like hers is the antithesis of the fair and just society that every decent person wants to live in.
The hollow platitudes and self-serving calls for national unity made by the vast majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives are bullshit, and they must be called out as such.
Those who voted to give Trump a pass on impeachment must realize that their own constituents are the ones who either literally sacked the U.S. Capitol (and what an outrage it is to even type those words out!) or don’t have any problems with the ones who did. And they haven’t got a Marcy around to point out the harm their behavior has caused, either.
So I’m going to take the path that Charlie Brown should have but didn’t. The behavior seen in this video is wholly unacceptable to anyone who considers themselves an American. Chanting “USA!” as you go marauding through the People’s house (and that includes you, too!) doesn’t give you any right to declaim your actions at a later date, nor does it give you any room to look the other way to protect the brittle ego of the man who has you so thoroughly in his thrall.
Every last person inside that Capitol building that day should be denounced for the traitor that he is. No political leader who swore an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution has any business sweeping this behavior under the rug, either. And the truth will continue to come out in the weeks and months ahead, too. To do otherwise is a disservice to everyone who ever fought for this nation, whether on a battlefield or in the realm of everyday life.
The Peppermint Patties of that mob are going to have to face up to their transgressions against the nation they so laughably claim to support. And their ringleader, Donald John Trump, must never again occupy any position of honor or trust. Since impeachment and conviction is the only orderly way of making this happen, it must be pursued at all costs.
Blue Batting Helmet 