Did what we all see on TV last week really happen? Who would have ever thought that the Capitol Building of the United States would be invaded, and by its own people, seemingly enabled by its own sitting president, and while congress was in session? This sort of thing just doesn’t happen in America – – – but it did. Just how and why will no doubt be the subject of heated deliberation and debate for a long time.
In the worst interpretation it was a deliberate act of sedition intended to overturn an established constitutional electoral process, however flawed that process may be.
In the best interpretation, it was a thoughtless and careless act by a megalomaniacal president who should have known better.
In either case it is essential that the guilty be held accountable for inciting/condoning such an appalling and unprecedented attack on rule of law and on the basic precepts on which this country was founded.
Ouster from office may certainly be warranted. Of course, that will happen automatically in about 10 days anyway. Impeachment or removal under the 25th amendment of the constitution are two avenues being voiced from certain quarters. However justified, such an act may feel good for only a short while. Possible ramifications of such action must be carefully weighed. What seems just for the guilty may not always prove right for the people. Unfortunately, there are too many malcontents and troublemakers out there just looking for an excuse to create mayhem, to destroy and to loot. Should that happen, countless innocent people will suffer and the country will once again be shaken to its core. We have enough on our plates now without another setback.
There are other avenues to explore for restitution . At the minimum, we could:
- Mandate the President make an urgent appeal to his followers to foreswear any further resistance or violence, under threat of swift prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.
- Levy the severest reprimand to a president that is within the power of Congress.
- Impose a multi-million dollar fine to cover the cost of the damage incurred and the disruption created.
Maybe even prohibition from ever holding public office again.
It is a pity that the many worthwhile and needed initiatives that President Trump undertook during his presidency will be forgotten. He will be remembered only as the self-centered president who enabled this terrible act. Even worse, our image as a model democracy whose citizens respect its laws and honor its institutions is badly tarnished. The hard work ahead is to heal the wounds left by partisan politics and to re-unify the country under one flag, as one people, as one America.
– – – just the view of a Common Man
Views of a Common Man 
Well said! I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s beyond shocking and disappointing to see how this country is so divided and reacting with so much hate. Enough is enough.
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It sounds like you switched to the Democratic Party !!
Sent from my iPad
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Without minimizing in any way Ollie’s concerns, there are historical parallels starting with 1968 to our present-day dilemma. The pandemic has contributed heavily to the dilemma of our political climate, and whether we overreacted or underreacted, it has affected all of us. In ’68 it was actually possible to ignore the news and not be affected by either Vietnam or the race riots, depending on where you lived.
Today the pandemic has touched every American in one way or another. Like the novel coronavirus, the flu pandemic back in 1968 had its origins in China. A half-century ago, the pandemic killed 100,000 Americans, a number the 2020 pandemic has already surpassed. But back then, the pandemic did not become a political issue. There were no shutdowns or broad calls for wearing masks.
Then in 1968 there was also the chaotic political environment. During his campaign, George Wallace often repeated a line, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” (Sound familiar?)There were assassinations, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and only two months later, Robert F. Kennedy. The riots that shook Washington, Chicago, Baltimore and other U.S. cities in 1968 were far more destructive and widespread than the looting and fires currently spreading around the country. The unrest shook college campuses and cities. The protests then, like today, were about racism and police brutality but also the Vietnam War. In 1968, more than 500,000 American troops were fighting in Vietnam, the bloodiest year of a long war far more divisive than the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.
We are a nation of interesting differences. I contend that strength lies in differences and not necessarily in similarities. For example, my home state of California has always been considered a “liberal” state. Nevertheless, California’s rural, conservative northern counties (where people have long wanted to split from California and form a new state called “Jefferson”) fully display the existing anger and distrust of the government. The rebellion that took place inside a government building in rural Northern California happened the day before the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Trump. I am reluctant to contend that these protestors should be charged and tried under the Seditious Conspiracy Act , especially when we have not prosecuted other rioters and looters.
In Shasta County, where Trump beat Biden by 33 percentage points, the supervisors’ meetings have become a prime venue for outrage. Accusations of treason and socialism are commonplace. So, too, is talk of revolution and civil war. That such tension is playing out in liberal California — which voted overwhelmingly for Biden and fought the Trump administration on immigration, climate change and myriad other issues — only signals that it may be happening all across the country. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors had planned to meet virtually Jan. 5 because of an uptick in coronavirus cases. But, in protest, a newly elected supervisor unlocked the doors. In poured dozens of people, unmasked, to vent their fury. While this protest was against all the required protocols in controlling COVID-19, the rhetoric (some of which is repeated below) in that officially closed county government facility carried a hint of the rage that would boil over 2,800 miles away when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol the next day. Some examples of the rhetoric follows:
Timothy Fairfield, 44, of Shingletown said to the supervisors. “Flee now while you can. Because the days of your tyranny are drawing to a close, and the legitimacy of this government is waning.” “When the ballot box is gone”, he added, “there is only the cartridge box. You have made bullets expensive. But luckily for you, ropes are reusable.” Fairfield, a disabled Army veteran who served in Iraq, said in an interview that he sees what happens at the supervisors’ meetings as “a microcosm of what happens at the national level.” He believed that the presidential election had been stolen and that elites, including local officials, were profiting off the pandemic while Americans lost their livelihoods. He told a Times reporter, “Democracy doesn’t die because people challenge the results of an election. Democracy dies when people don’t believe the results of the election and don’t believe what they’re being told by the government and the government mouthpieces like you. No one believes the media.”
Carlos Zapata, who attended the supervisors’ meeting, told the Los Angeles Times. “We have to make politicians scared again. If politicians do not fear the people they govern, that relationship is broken.” Zapata is a 42-year-old Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq. He is the son of Peruvian immigrants and formerly a long-time Democrat who became a Republican to vote for Trump. He blasted supervisors for “muzzling” their faces with masks and said the closures and restrictions that have devastated small businesses are making families starve. After the DC incident, Zapata said, “People say … ‘Oh, man, those people at the Capitol, they were violent. That’s un-American, I’m like, the most American thing they could have done is burn that f— down.”
Conclusion
Hopefully this too shall pass. Bernard Beckett (author of Genesis) said, “Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, and differences resolved” .
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Jeanette, Thanks for your valuable comments. As usual you have added needed perspective to the issue. I hope “this too shall pass” really soon.
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