Happy New Year! This was not meant to be my first post for the year, but sometimes life gets away from us. As I sit here and write this, the Capitol building in our nation’s Capital is now under lockdown. This comes as Trump protestors and anarchists have broken through four layers of security fencing and attempted to occupy the building fighting the Capitol police standing outside. The only word to describe what is happening is a coup.
The definition of a coup is the sudden violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government. President Trump lost the election. That is a fact. It was not stolen from him. Millions of Americans voted and let their voices be heard. It’s interesting that the only states the President has argued the votes were obtained fraudulently are in the states he lost. You would think if voter fraud were so widespread it would be in all 50 states, not just a handful. What you have here is a narcissistic, small individual who cannot stand to lose control and lose power.
By the time I post this, the news coming out of Washington D.C will have gotten worse. The Capital building has been breached, and what we’re seeing is something no American alive today has ever seen in their lifetime. But as I sit here and watch democracy fall apart before our very eyes I’m amazed at the police response. No weapons have been fired at the protestors, no tear gas, no rubber bullets, there was almost no show of force at all. Compare that to the protestors last year who were ran over, shot at, beaten, and killed by the police. But I guess if white men storm a federal building it’s not as serious as Black people protesting their own murders.
What we are seeing play out in real time, is the double-standard that exists in this country and the irony of white people to not understand how privileged they are that they get to overthrow a government and have nothing happen to them. The leader that they fight for is nowhere to be found, safely inside the White House. America has always prided itself on being the purveyor of democracy and truth. But in all honesty, violence and riots are as much a part of American history as the Constitution.
The President of this country has incited a coup against the country he swore an oath to protect. This is treason, and those who have stood by him are traitors against the country they claim to represent. Those who stormed the Capital building are not revolutionaries, they are anarchists and traitors. Democracy does not die overnight. It is a slow death that happens over time. This day has been four years in the making every time President Trump refused to admit if he would support a peaceful transition of power. It was visible when he had peaceful protestors tear-gassed so he could stand in front of a church with an upside-down Bible for a photo-op. It was visible when he refused to condemn racism during his first Presidential Debate last year.
What this behavior does it erodes trust in democracy and the democratic process over time. President Trump repeatedly claiming that he lost the election plants the doubt in the minds of his supporters to vote in the future. Republicans choosing to object to the electoral votes supports the belief that the people do not hold the power. It will take much more than a new President to restore faith and trust in democracy.
“A house divided itself cannot stand.” Those words were spoken by Abraham Lincoln and ring as true today as they did then. America as a nation is divided. And it will be our home that is torn down in the process. I wish you all safety in the coming days and for the rest of 2021.