The events of January 6th of this year were unlike anything that this nation has seen in it’s entire history. A sitting president, who had lost an election and was effectively a lame duck, but who claimed that the election was stolen from him even while failing to provide a shred of proof to back this claim up, directed an unruly crowd of his supporters towards the Congress, where the election results were officially being ratified and finalized. The president urged his crowd not to be weak in what he insisted was nothing short of, in his words, taking back their country. The crowd obviously believed that the election was stolen, despite their president not offering any proof. Still, they were willing not only to follow his advice – apparently not bothered by the president’s obviously untrue promise to join them – and went over to the Capitol building. It did not take long for this crowd to turn violent, and they stormed the Capitol building, scaling walls and bullying their way past police barricades, ultimately smashing through windows and doors and gaining access into the most iconic building of American democracy, intent on thwarting the efforts of Congress and the sitting Vice President in finalizing the election results. They were intent on keeping their president in power, despite his having clearly lost the election.
When something this unique happens in American history, it most assuredly warrants investigation It is a big deal. Frankly, given the description of events that actually happened, and which can be verified on video of and even leading up to the day - a sitting president promising something big would happen on that day, the sitting president giving a fiery speech and urging the unruly crowd to go to the Capitol building and take back the country, and then that mass of supporters violently forcing their way into the Capitol building to destroy and in some cases steal property and threatening members of Congress - then it fits the bill of a major event that demands to be taken seriously. It requires investigation.
Yet, the Republican party, which has effectively become the Trump party, has bent over backwards to protect the criminal conduct of their former president time and time and time again. They have glossed over his blatant corruption and xenophobia, and become apologists for his outright criminal conduct, whether it is with payouts to porn stars or seemingly supporting outright white supremacy or trying to bribe or intimidate a leader of another nation or the countless lies that he professed before, during and after his presidency, or repeatedly undermining the nation's democratic institutions, or finally, trying to start an insurrection. In short, they have effectively abandoned democracy itself, and seem to favor a totalitarian takeover by their former president.
You might think that they would hesitate to fall in line like this for someone who was historically unpopular when actually in the White House, never once cracking 50 percent approval ratings, and losing the popular vote in both elections in 2016 and 2020, the last one by a very decisive margin. He also lost both chambers of Congress, to boot.
Still, they are too cowardly to stand up to him, and to move on from his shadow and into the sunlight of reason and normality. Nope, they are afraid of his supporters, and what some mean-spirited comments on Twitter might mean to their own political ambitions. And so time and time again, this pathetic leader has been allowed to get away with despicable, reprehensible, and increasingly criminal behavior. The lesson that he learned, time and time and time again, is that his fellow Republicans will, by and large, let him get away with it. So he keeps pushing the envelope even further, time and time and time again, to the detriment of the entire country.
This latest move should signify the death of the Republican party. It had been coming closer to this point, but once a man like this gets away with an attempted insurrection - an actual attempted coup d'état of a legitimate democracy, for all intents and purposes - then that political party is dead. Already, some groups are splintering off, and forming another party. But the party that is left has shown an inability and unwillingness to keep itself, and especially it's de facto leader, in check, even after he has shown downright anti-democratic tactics and conduct, time and time and time again.
Shame on the 35 Senators who blocked this investigation. And shame on those increasingly spiteful and fascist Americans who continue to support this tyrant.
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