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I don't watch a lot of television, but it was hard NOT to watch the chaos on the screen yesterday.
The Boston Globe had a good summary of the events this morning:
" A sorry spectacle we all knew was coming".
Wednesday was one of the most shameful days in this nation’s history — one that was as inevitable as it was frightening.
What we saw on Capitol Hill was an attempted coup by a dangerous president and an unscrupulous, deluded, and entirely too-large fragment of his following — incited to violence by his words and example. This ramshackle but real attempt at insurrection was enabled by the president’s soulless and despicable allies in Congress, some of whom believe they can ride the wild monster they’ve unleashed to the Republican nomination in 2024.
Imagine the response if these invaders had been Black. Actually, one doesn’t have to imagine. Think Lafayette Square and the vast show of force that sent peaceful protesters reeling and bloodied so that President Trump could strike his preposterous pose with the Bible.
The man who lost the election by 7 million votes told his ride-or-die fans, “We will never give up. We will never concede.” Then he urged them to “fight like hell” to save their country, to go to the Capitol to register their displeasure as, inside, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and other seditionists pretended to believe that the election that tossed Trump from office was rigged and that the electoral votes that gave Joe Biden a clear victory should not be counted.
The photograph of Capitol police in the House chamber with guns drawn against those on the other side of a barricaded door said it all. The president repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, and here was that refusal made flesh. World leaders decried the sorry spectacle, citing this nation’s storied status as an example for the world. That one image made it finally impossible to deny that that light has gone out, the beacon broken.
How could anyone watch these last five years and be surprised at any of this? Trump and his kind have been encouraging just this kind of violent rioting for years. He could not condemn the murderous white supremacists in Charlottesville. His supporters made Kyle Rittenhouse, accused of murdering two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wis., a hero. The couple who pulled guns on peaceful protesters in St Louis spoke at the party’s national convention. Proud Boys . . . stand by. Remember?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/06/metro/sorry-spectacle-we-all-knew-was-coming/?et_rid=813052022&s_campaign=metroheadlines:newsletter