Many years ago there was a conversation that repeated constantly at cocktail parties. You don’t hear much of it anymore because of the age of the population. But somebody would broach the question, “Where were you on the day Kennedy was assassinated?” People held forth on how they were walking on campus, at the doctor’s, whatever it was and what they heard and what their reactions were. I was in the fifth grade and I remember the teacher telling us that the president had been “shot” but not killed and then after recess, we learned the truth and were sent home. We talked about this subject because it was something we all had in common, the horror of the day that the president of the United States was murdered.
Similarly, the conversation now is “where were you on January 6?” That I recall vividly. I was glued to my computer because I believed what Michael Cohen had said when testifying before Congress, which was that Donald Trump would not relinquish power peacefully if he lost the election. And I watched with horror, as did we all, as the day developed. Now, three years later, a lot of the ringleaders who orchestrated January 6 are still at large. Here’s Rick Wilson’s two cents worth.
The Capitol Police held the line as did police offers from the Metropolitan D.C. unit. We are eternally grateful to them that more people didn’t get injured or killed that day. You are aware of the people who did get killed in the line of duty. Brian Sicknick suffered a fatal stroke. Other officers were permanently disabled, others took months to recover from injuries.
The denizens of MAGA world would have you forget all this. Kellyanne Conway said last week that “the calendar is always set to January 6 for the left.” In point of fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if that was in fact true. January 6 is MAGA Day, for all intents and purposes. If, by some insane twist of circumstances, Mike Pence would have decided to throw in with the fake elector scheme and if somehow it had all been pulled off and Trump had achieved his clumsy, ill-conceived coup, then January 6 might well be a holiday today. It could be MAGA Day. This could be a day of celebration.
Right now, as we speak, Donald Trump could be coming outside on the Truman Balcony and addressing the crowd of worshippers as he celebrated yet another day in office and the abolishment of those tacky things called elections. Those were such a bore, who needs them anyway?
Think about that for a moment. You need to, because that’s exactly what the MAGAs were thinking about, was how to keep Trump in power, then, now and forever. They are that crazy. And he is that crazy. And more importantly, and this is the biggy: the Republican party is that crazy and that complicit.
That is the real root of the problem here, is the complicity and corruption of the GOP. They know, the vast majority if not all of them, who and what Trump is. But if he can somehow keep fundraising and keep getting votes and keep any of the Republicans in power for yet one more term, they’ll go along with anything. Anything. They proved that three years ago.
And they’ve been proving it every day since then. Do not let people like the jaded Kellyanne Conway minimize the importance of January 6. This is not a day we want to move on from. This is a day that we want to get to the bottom of and this is a day that we want to make damn sure that we don’t repeat.
The whole debacle is the best advertising as to the need for much better civics education in schools.
Or even better education generally.
Civics education is key. When all this madness started in 2016 I educated a friend of mine, who was 61 at the time, as to how many senators and how many representatives we had in Congress and how that came to be. She didn’t know. And education has only gotten worse.
Your second last paragraph sums it nicely.
They know. They all know. Lindsey Graham sure as hell knows. Same with Ted Cruz. But if Trump can somehow swing a lever to go in the R direction, fine. They don’t give a rats azz. He could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue.
1/6 shows what the cult of 45 can and will do. The GOP are also part of the 45 cult. Go watch Daughters of the Cult on Hulu. I was in a christian cult for 15 years (’72 – ’88). I did what I was told to do because of my desire to walk with “god” until their true colors showed me they were not who they said they were. It still took me 2 more years to leave. The documentary shows how deep the brainwashing can go in any cult. The brainwashing is deep in Maga. The fear is deep in the GOP. Fear of losing power and control. Fear of retribution and revenge from 45. Maga will still be with us if 45 is imprisoned. Again, watch the documentary. Even from prison he can cause GREAT DAMAGE to this country and possible death to those he will claim were unjust to him. We are very deep into the woods already. I have fear that we might go deeper.
The republican presidents and their counterparts at all levels have gutted the funding for public education under the guise of ‘choice’, i.e., the opportunity to start the brainwashing early. Look what Hitler did to the youth of Germany…he started the hazing early, with the Hitler Youth, brainwashed them into killers, then demanded ten year olds defend Berlin when the Russians were at the door ready to kick it in. Information that is fact based is POWER, if nothing else the power to THINK FOR YOURSELF! That’s key to maintaining a democracy…something 76 GODDAMN MILLION of our fellow ‘citizens’ evidently aren’t interested in. The day the nazis take over is the day I’ll abandon nonviolent resistance and revert to the oath I took in the military with the same objective we HAD IN WW2…STOPPING THEM BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY. It may be a lost cause at that point, but as Jimmy Cliff said: I’d rather be in my grave than live as a puppet or a slave. VOTE!!!!!
never saw Jimmy Cliff live but have heard The Harder They Come by The Jerry Garcia Band…awesome!
covered by Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders that is…
Like you I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. That I would bear true faith and allegiance to the same. For me and I know for you those weren’t mere words I had to recite. That oath is parked deep in me, in my DNA. If those “Meal Team Six MAGAs” strap up for action and come for me, or I see them going after someone else then they’d better be ready to die because I am and if it comes to going at it with them this ole jarhead is going to hell in a crowd.
The day Kennedy was shot I was home (I would have been in kindergarten at the time, so probably home by midday).
I remember I was upset because the news interrupted Bozo’s Circus and complained about it to my mom.