What’s the difference between the political situation in the US and Nicaragua?
Jokes aside, this is extremely saddening and disgusting, but it’s not surprising in hindsight. Planned by the GOP or not, a clear chain of actions set this up. Trump declared himself president and called democracy illegal. He promoted QAnon, which called for violent insurrection should Trump lose. The rioters were simply following through.
What was surprising is how much of a fucking clown show the law enforcement response was. If hundreds of armed terrorists tried to invade the second most important building in the country, if not the most, I would have thought the police would fight back. If there ever war a time for police to shoot at crowds, it would specifically be when they’re trying to attack an entire branch of the US government to disrupt the democratic process and coup the elected candidate. Despite this, the Trump supporters were treated as roughly as peaceful protesters when they were committing an act of terrorism and insurrection. I don’t believe the death penalty should be used and I think police brutality is a serious issue that should be addressed, but I’m extremely concerned the government was so gentle with terrorists who attempted to overthrow our democracy. All of these people should be arrested, they are not patriots, they are violent traitors. These are people who support a immoral crook and liar and are willing to destroy the foundations this country was built upon to have him win at all costs. If these dumbasses waved flags of Islamic fundamentalism rather than white supremacy, they would be dead right now. As the communist bastard Mao said, the US is a paper tiger. We can’t defend our own elected leaders from anti-democratic domestic terrorists, much less maintain our global influence should the existence of such a movement continue.
The issue is one of two Americas. There’s an America for everyone and there’s Trump’s America. A large part of the country puts their strongman over everyone’s well being and the ideals that made America great. I can only hope less extreme conservatives are able to put the country before Trump’s Party.
I don’t know if the GOP can be redeemed, but I hope the few Republicans in DC who genuinely love America take a stand. There is a good chance the GOP will splinter when they have to chose an identity, I’ve seen it happen with Republicans online already. GOP legislators know it will difficult to keep this crap up. Trump is an obstacle to campaign with. But they also have used Trump fanaticism to win elections. The less ideological Congress members will have to chose whether they run as Republicans or Trump supporters. The GOP will fight over whether it is the Republican Party or Trump’s Party. His personality cult has created quite an issue now. Any reasonable statement from GOP legislators will earn them the ire of Trump supporters, but always agreeing with Trump will prevent any bipartisan cooperation or support from moderates. In the best case scenario, Trump supporters get pissed off by the former GOP establishment and go third party and the remainder of GOP leadership will have change their policies to appeal to ideological voters.
Republicans know pursuing a Trump re-election would be idiotic, but what else do they have now? Unless fanatic Trump supporters magically go back to normal humans and everyone just forgets what happened in the last 4 years, the GOP may be too fractured to run a viable campaign against Biden or retake the Senate. However, I’m expecting a lot of far right political violence to be a long lasting part of Trump’s legacy. Anyone who said not to worry about Trump in 2016 can take their bullshit and shove it back down their mouth, this is the most threatened position the Union has been in since the Civil War, and the worst attack of our federal government since 1814. This new political situation won’t be going away any time soon and Americans will have to deal with the consequences for years.
In the meantime, we have at least 4 years to rebuild the country after the most disastrous presidency in history. Democrats aren’t imperfect or infallible, but they have a promising platform and certainly could not do worse. Mitch McConnell will be gone too, which gives me hope for significant progress being made. The Biden Administration will inherit a chaotic dumpster fire of a country, but America has always been able to recover. Even though this is an unique disaster of a presidency, we Americans will figure it out and fix the country, probably.
Hopefully.
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:04 am