Call Trump’s protesters what they are: Terrorists

You have to wonder if this is what Donald Trump wanted.

Or, worse, you don’t have to wonder. It seems to be exactly what he wanted.

What has happened in Washington, D.C., is not a surprise. The president provided the tinder. He stacked the kindling. He poured gasoline onto the pile. He lit the match and dropped it.

He has made a mockery of the nation he was elected to serve and the Constitution he swore an oath to protect.

And he was aided in this by politicians all over the country, including Arizona.

He was encouraged, promoted and worshiped by members of Congress like Arizona Republicans Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko. By Republican party officials like Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward.

Each of them enabled and supported and kowtowed to Trump as he refused to accept the results of the election and tried to have himself installed by fiat.

They stood by while he urged his supporters – now more appropriately called terrorists – to descend on D.C. on the day when Electoral College votes are being certified.

Although, saying these politicians “stood by” may make it appear as if their approval of Trump’s behavior, of what he was instigating, was passive. It was not.

They were active participants.

Cheerleaders.

They could have urged caution and conscience. Instead, they simply followed the president’s vocal lead.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Trump tweeted. Yes.

So there should be no surprise to see thousands of violent anarchists attack a poorly defended Capitol. It didn’t have to happen.

The terrorists were aided and abetted by elected officials.

Wednesday morning, as the violence was stirring, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar joined Sen. Ted Cruz in objecting to Arizona’s Electoral College votes, which were won by Joe Biden and certified by all 15 counties in the state and our Republican governor. He was thumbing his nose at his oath, at his country and at the same democratic process, the same system, the same voters who put him in office.

All in service to the cult of his Dear Leader.

The obsessed supporters of Donald Trump, like Gosar, like Reps. Biggs and Lesko, want to have it both ways, accepting the process that elected them but denouncing the same process because their cult’s prophet came up short.

That’s the system sycophants like Arizona Republican Party Chairman Kelli Ward are promoting.

Not one determined by voters but by elitists and their misguided mobs.

A dictatorship.