Four years ago tomorrow, America experienced one of the darkest days in its entire history – the attempt by a sitting president of the United States, one who was defeated for reelection, attempting to hold on to power by any/all means necessary. Specifically, what Donald Trump did was attempt to use a combination of spurious legal challenges to the 2020 election results, refusal of numerous Congressional Republicans (including ones from Virginia) to certify the results of that election, and – when all that failed – inciting a violent mob to ATTACK OUR CAPITOL and attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.
In that violent assault by an enraged pro-Trump mob, the damage done was severe:
- “Some rioters[m] and 174 police officers were injured, of whom 15 were hospitalized, some with severe injuries”
- “Four officers, from various police departments, who responded to the attack committed suicide in the days and months that followed”
- “Brian Sicknick, a 42-year-old responding Capitol Police officer, was pepper-sprayed during the attack and had two thromboembolic strokes the next day, after which he was placed on life suppor and soon died”
- “Rioters stormed the offices of Nancy Pelosi, flipping tables and ripping photos from walls; the office of the Senate Parliamentarian was ransacked; art was looted; and feces was tracked into several hallways. Windows were smashed throughout the building, leaving the floor littered with glass and debris. Rioters damaged, turned over, or stole furniture.”
- “The attack was followed by political, legal, and social repercussions. The second impeachment of Donald Trump, who was charged for incitement of insurrection for his conduct, occurred on January 13. At the same time, Cabinet officials were pressured to invoke the 25th Amendment for removing Trump from office.”
- “Trump was subsequently acquitted in the Senate trial, which was held in February after Trump had already left office. The result was a 57–43 vote in favor of conviction, with every Democrat and seven Republicans voting to convict, but two-thirds of the Senate (67 votes) are required to convict. Many in the Trump administration resigned. Several large companies announced they were halting all political donations, and others have suspended funding the lawmakers who had objected to certifying Electoral College results.”
On and on it goes…the damage – whether physical, psychological or political – was enormous. And yet, four years later, despite numerous reports, hearings, investigations, commissions (including the January 6 commission that Elaine Luria and Liz Cheney served on), etc, etc., and many low-level pro-Trump rioters paying some sorts of legal penalties, the chief perpetrator of the attempted coup, Donald Trump, as well as his top henchmen and henchwomen, have paid essentially no price for what they did. To the contrary, Trump and many of those henchmen and henchwomen will soon be returning to the scene of the crime for his inauguration. And many of those Republicans who condemned the violence on January 6, 2021 happily and enthusiastically supported Trump’s presidential bid four years later.
So how did this bizarre, dark, dystopic, FUBAR “alternate timeline” come about? A bunch of factors, including MASSIVE failures and cowardice by the “mainstream media”; torrents of disinformation pouring forth from social media, right-wing media, etc.; an almost complete failure of Democrats to build our own, effective messaging infrastructure to fight back and to push out OUR (truthful, fact-based, positive) narrative; another MASSIVE failure, this time by Merrick Garland, our justice system and the Biden administration, to rapidly and aggressively hold the 1/6/21 coup plotters and perpetrators fully accountable for their actions (e.g., they should have all been charged with severe crimes within a few months of 1/6/21…and convicted/thrown in prison); yet another MASSIVE failure by Trump voters – and 2020 Biden voters who stayed home this time – to not understand the severe threat posed by another Trump presidency, this one bent on revenge, retribution, carrying out the extreme policies (“Project 2025”) they didn’t manage to accomplish the first time around, etc. The list could go on and on.
Bottom line: we had ONE JOB to do in November 2024, and as a nation we failed to accomplish it – disaster most certainly NOT averted. So now, the big questions include: can American democracy be saved? will the American people fight to defend said democracy, or let it die with a whimper? will the media continue to normalize/ “sanewash” Trump’s lunacy (the answer to that question, sad to say, appears to be that they will definitely do so – even worse than from 2016 through 2024)?; will we even have free-and-fair elections going forward?; will the world be plunged into a new era of anarchy, authoritarianism and darkness?; how will we ever get out of this mess? Any other questions? How about answers? We could really use some of those at this point.
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