The sun came up this morning. We are raised to expect that it will. It rose, it shone, it will move in a predictable path from east to west and set at 5:17 p.m. In between the rising and the setting of the sun, at 12:00 noon EST, Wed. Jan. 20, Joseph Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, promising to uphold and defend the Constitution.
He will do it with dignity and honor, as befits the office. Biden, a man of obvious humility, civility, faith and empathy, has made a point that his administration will reach out to unite rather than divide. Would that this will be possible.
Photo courtey of Unsplash.
This previously predicatable event has been happening every four years on Jan. 20 for more than 220 years. As the world’s oldest functioning democracy — the “beacon of freedom”, “the shining city on a hill” — most Americans have taken the peaceful transfer of power for granted.
As of two weeks ago, no longer can this literal transfer of power be taken for granted. In fact, many with security expertise now say that we quite literally “dodged a bullet” on Jan. 6.
After years of near hourly assaults on the institutions of our democracy, in a desperate attempt to cling to power, Trump revved up a multi-faceted crowd of his supporters with the same lies; that he won the election and it was stolen from him. (Fact check: he did not win the election, there was no voter fraud, and all 50 states certified their election results). He told them to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
Our local competitor has chosen to feature a benign view of that assault as just a bunch of church ladies and reading clubs, women for Trump and honest Republicans (Dist. #60 Representative Ron Hanks was there and says he was with “some very nice, refined people”.)
In fact, such people were probably there, somewhere, with their tour bus tags and their signs, their walkers and their crazy hats; who believe the lies and followed orders to show up on Jan. 6 .
But so was a witches’ stew of right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys and III Percenters, white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-nazis, Christian nationalists, Qanon conspiracists, patriot groups that formed last summer, as well as radicalized off-duty police officers, retired military and reserve military and disaffected hate groups that live to provoke chaos. They were tactically organized, prepared for battle; ready to take prisoners and kill our elected leaders.
The term being used by many for those at the head of the mob that smashed into our Capitol building, who hunted through the halls of Congress after our elected officials is “militias” . But Ark Valley Voice won’t use it any longer. That would give them the veneer they so desperately want; legitimacy. No – the term for the mob that attempted the insurrection on our Capitol is — violent domestic extremists. Their authoritarian goal is fascism; no less than the takeover of our democracy.
Repeat. Fascism. Simply put, these people’s goals are the opposite of democracy. They want power and they want control. With deep roots in America, with a test event in Charlottesville, the Capitol assault was not the first, nor sadly it might not be the last attempt to overturn our democracy. The back of this particular mob action was broken, but it’s there.
As the nation celebrates the inauguration of our 46th president, the alert has been sounded. We take our democracy for granted at our own peril.
Not only did the Chaffee County Times think that a glorified ad for local realtors was a “news” item more worthy of front page coverage than was the riot in DC, they also refuse to accept or acknowledge any criticism of their actions.
While I do understand the value of local journalism, I cannot continue to support the Times, now that I have a clearer view of what passes for journalism over there. I’ve canceled my subscription, effective immediately, and I would encourage anyone who values true journalism to do the same thing.
If they want to present ads as news, they’re free to do so, but it’ll be without my support.
Nothing will be done about these groups locally. As long as the cops and the local government condone their behavior and allow their actions to go ignored they will remain a threat. Bullying is not illegal. They are all bullies and they don’t care who they bother as long as they get to play dress-up and think they can intimidate someone with their guns without consequences they will keep up their actions against our community and civilized society no matter what crazy movement they attach themselves to. Our county condones their behavior as “their right” yet they do not stand up for other rights violated by allowing these people’s actions. Our county is typical. Only certain people have rights. These supposed militia groups enjoy hate and violence for the sake of hate and violence and not for any honest belief in rights or God as they pray as they assault our government and threaten harm and murder of representatives based on lies most of them know to be false. Now they seek to blame others for inciting them thinking that this frees them of responsibility. Why not? They have gotten away with this selfish behavior all of their lives. I think that Manson’s followers didn’t get away with it and neither should Trump’s. I hope that the property used by these people to train and plot to overtake our democracy or harm our residents is seized along with their weapons under the confiscation act. There will be no healing for this society until the crimes against this country are all dealt with and Trump and those responsible are held responsible just as we would all be for doing far less harm or breaking no laws peacefuly protesting. There is one thing liars all do – they refuse to ever admit they were wrong no matter if their hand is stuck in the cookie jar. They never apologize for anything even though it was all very intentional. They get away with it repeatedly because they are never held accountable by anyone as long as they continue their lies. Most of them are spoiled rotten and have gotten away with never doing anything wrong since childhood. If that were not the case Trump would not have happened. As long as that is the standard of behavior allowed to prevail this problem will continue. If our country had done it’s due diligence and studied the candidate Trump instead of basking in ignorance and reading only headlines that tickle their ears, and if there were more people who cared for something bigger than themselves we would not be here now. Healing would need to be local as well as national and in this area it will never happen as long as those in power use that power to legislate harm to poor and minorities while condoning actions by others against those minorities. Their will never be a hate free zone here when the actions of our local gov’t favor some people over others and fuel the division.
I wonder how many Qanon cultists are still waiting for “the storm” to begin? Any second now, true believers, any second now! Have faith in the plan!
Well said Jan. Yes Ron Hanks was at the insurrection at the Capital, but I doubt his friends were well refined or nice. Also at the Capital was the Mother of Rep. Lauren Boebert. Boebert claims her Mother (who shares her QAnon and fascist views) sheltered with her. Others say she was part of the insurrection. One thing is for certain. Members of Boebert’s campaign security team are members of the 3 Per Cent militia. Maybe they took part in the insurrection. I have to ask just how she was elected in the first place.She had powerful people who share her fascist views backing her. She had the backing of other far right politicians including Ted Cruz of Texas. In fact Cruz gave her $70,000 for her campaign. She failed to report this campaign contribution. (Source: The most recent issue of The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lauren-boebert-capitol-riot/ ) So, yes we now have a new President who is decent and refined. Now we have to make sure that Boebert and Cruz and the other politicians who share their love of fascism are either removed from office or defeated in the polling booth. Only then will our democracy be safe.