Did they make America great again?

 

Bill Knight column for 1-11, 12 or 13, 2021

 What did you expect?

And what do you expect next?

Next week, Joe Biden will be inaugurated where Capitol chaos ensued Wednesday. Will truth-telling finally persuade President Trump’s followers and enablers to stand up for the country?

After years of lies, months of false claims of a stolen election, and threats, Trump promising that Wednesday protests “will be wild” and his lawyer Rudy Guiliani stoking the morning rally by calling for “trial by combat,” hundreds overran the Capitol, chased representatives and staff from their chambers, and temporarily stopped the count of electoral votes to certify Biden’s election.

            A day before the riot, Trump supporter Ashli Babbit tweeted that “nothing will stop us” and “the storm is here.” The apparent adherent to the QAnon conspiracy theories was shot and killed; others were injured, and damage was done.

“Today’s attempted coup has been years in the making as Donald Trump consistently spews venom, conspiracies, hate and lies to his supporters,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. “They are carrying out his wishes, and far too many Republican lawmakers have enabled and even encouraged this violent threat.”

A frequent Trumka foe, National Association of Manufacturers president Jay Timmons (ex-director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee!), agreed, commenting, “Armed violent protestors who support the baseless claim by outgoing President Trump that he somehow won an election that he overwhelmingly lost have stormed the U.S. Capitol today because Trump refused to accept defeat in a free and fair election. Throughout this whole disgusting episode, Trump has been cheered on by members of his own party, adding fuel to the distrust that has enflamed violent anger. This is sedition and should be treated as such. The outgoing president incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy.”

Yes, Trump is responsible, as are Fox and enablers Dobbs, Hannity and Ingraham, plus Limbaugh, Bannon, Breitbart, the NRA and Right-wing evangelicals. They all encouraged phony allegations of rigged elections or silently went along. They’re traitors, too.

Trump’s ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis said, “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump.”

Mattis said Trump has tried to “destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens. Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and we the people will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country.”

Some Trump apologists accuse Democrats of the same tactics in 2016, but Clinton conceded to Trump the next day, Democrats didn’t demand a nullification of ballots, and they didn’t advocate violence.

No, the riot was “the logical trajectory of the last four years of President Trump’s leadership,” according to Catholic Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego. “We have stood by without giving greater witness to the terrible danger that leadership rooted in division brings to a democratic society. Today we see the face of insurrection. It is ugly and calls us to action.”

Trump finally made a statement hours after the riot.

“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20,” Trump said about 3 Thursday morning (after Congress certified his loss). “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again.”

Besides the riot, bombs were found at the Washington offices of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee but neutralized before exploding. Days earlier, reformed neo-Nazi Frank Meeink was interviewed by my old friend Jeff Stein of SpyTalk.com and said Trump’s rhetoric invites “another Timothy McVeigh” to conduct a mass-casualty bombing.

“I believe out of the 75 million that voted for Trump, 1 million of them are now radicalized hardcore, but about 10,000 to 50,000 of them are like me, or what I was,” said Meeink, the 45-year-old inspiration for the film “American History X” who’s now an advocate for racial justice. “That’s really dangerous.”

Elsewhere, long-time GOP consultant Steve Schmidt last week said “Trumpism” is an autocratic movement that fits a historic pattern: a cult of personality for a Leader, Thug supporters, Elite backers, Propagandists, Financiers, Religious extremists, and “Sheep,” those who won’t “stand up against Trump’s mean tweets and indecent, corrupt, cruel and incompetent acts.”

John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, on Thursday said, “We need to look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office in our land – at the office seeker’s character, at their morals, at their ethical record, their integrity, their honesty, their flaws, what they have said about women, and minorities, why they are seeking office in the first place, and only then consider the policies they espouse.”