Who is to blame for the Capitol riot?
Words usually come easily to me. Yet as I watched the rampage Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, and then listened to the president speak about it afterward, I struggled to compose my thoughts.
Do I call out President Donald Trump for the attempted coup leader that he is?
He, after all, called for his supporters to come to Washington to protest Congress certifying the Electoral College vote and sealing his fate.
Trump may not have drawn his sword and led their march up the Capitol steps, but he surely knew that at least some who answered his call had that in mind. He fired them up with a speech. And he did little to deter them.
He certainly watched the chaos unfold on television like everyone else. He could have immediately called for his minions to fall back. Sure, he whipped out a few short tweets about discouraging violence. But it took several hours for him to gather the courage to show his face, which he did only via a recorded message.
And in it, as he called for people to go home, he sent them off by telling them how “very special” they were and how much he loved them. He did everything but thank them.
Do I call out the GOP members in Congress who supported the president to the very end and planned to challenge his loss?
When their lives were endangered by
supporters of the man they worship, did they finally, hopefully, recognize Trump for the self-centered soul he is?
As lawmakers were given gas masks and heard gunfire inside the building that represents our freedoms, could there be any more evidence of the damage Trump has done to America?
Do I call out those who have supported Trump for so long, wearing his hokey hats and flying his flags, while ignoring his many warts?
Well, that requires caution. And it wouldn’t be fair.
There are a lot of people who support Trump just because they are Republicans and Trump was their party’s candidate. They’re not bad people.
They don’t endorse the violence that
occurred on Wednesday, or necessarily agree with everything the president has said or done. So we should be cautious not to label all of them as coup contributors.
I hope, though, that what has occurred opens their eyes to blind partisanship. You don’t have to support a madman just because he is from your party. I didn’t.
Do I call out the similarities with the summer’s protests in Philadelphia, Minneapolis and cities across America, and remind the Trump camp what it was saying then?
As some Black Lives Matter protests deteriorated into looting and violence, Trump, and many of his supporters, flooded social media to decry the situa
tion. Many blasted the media, including yours truly, for not calling them out for being thugs, hooligans and criminals.
Well, take a look in the mirror, MAGA fans
Was this lawlessness not on the same level? Is the president willing to call this out for the looting that it was — I saw photos on Twitter of one grinning fellow walking off with a Capitol podium — not to mention the broken windows and other damage, and the fact that a woman was shot and killed? Or was it just a “protest”?
Do I question why such an insurrection would even be allowed to occur at what should be one of the most secure buildings in the world?
Let’s face it. If a Black Lives Matter protest had been planned at the Capitol, fences would have been erected and police, perhaps even the military, in riot gear would have stood sentry. Any attempt to breach the line would have been rebuffed, with tear gas at the very least.
But when a bunch of white folks show up, even if some are visibly armed, it’s treated like a Sunday afternoon picnic.
Remember those barricades that were erected around the White House before Election Day, the ones that looked sturdier than Trump’s beloved border wall? Where were they?
Do I ponder whether America has become a third-world country, where elections are decided by a few using force instead of by the will of the people?
No, I don’t.
While what happened Wednesday was disturbing and disappointing, let’s all take a deep breath and recognize it for what it is.
A few hundred, maybe a few thousand, misled souls lost their minds after being duped by a master showman who smooth talked his way into the White House and made them worship him like a god. That’s it.
The dust cleared quickly. Members of Congress took their seats again and finished their business. Trump will be dispatched from office, and life in America will go on.
This will become just another chapter in American history, which isn’t always pretty. And I hope we all will learn from it.