Reflections on Today's Surreal Attack on the Capitol

A crazed, frustrated mob attacked the nation's Capitol today. This was not the storming of the Bastille. It is hopefully not an echo of the final years of the Weimar Republic when the Communists and Nazis formed competing street mobs. America has been descending into mob violence the past year starting with the murder of George Floyd by Officer Derek Chauvin. Riots, looting, arson, attacks on police went unpunished with police officers ordered to stand by and even vacate their station. Prosecutors dropped charges while cities entered into a frenzy of defunding the police. Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Seattle, not to mention Atlanta, Kenosha and Louisville exploded. Americans watched the great American cities of Portland and Seattle destroyed while hapless public officials failed their responsibilities. The nation watched has public officials permitted the defacing, destruction and removal of the nation’s monuments, the destruction of the country’s culture and heritage. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson trashed. Violence and lawlessness were tolerated. Frustration grew. Vigilante justice starts to take over when the law fails. Minneapolis was not the beginning of the break down in the American polity. Democrats four years ago accused Donald Trump of being an illegitimate president having colluded with the Russians to win the election. They pursued a bogus impeachment against President Trump with no grounds. The media joined them daily with a torrent of anti-Trump bile. Then came the November 5 election. President Trump lost, but several irregularities occurred. The President believes the election was stolen from him in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He believes it, but no proof satisfactory to scores of state and federal judges surfaced. Suspicion Yes. Proof No. He wouldn’t quit. He was playing with fire, agitating his supporters to fight the stolen election. The Democrats have been playing with fire the past four years, trying to destroy a duly elected president by any means possible and attacking the American polity. Something bad was going to happen. Nothing of this account justifies today’s storming of the Capitol by a crazed mob of misguided, inflamed Americans. What were they thinking? Mobs often aren’t thinking. Many of their faces are captured on videos. The Biden Administration will track them down. Vice President Joe Biden was going to be inaugurated President on January 20. The electors met and cast their ballots. Congress will accept the ballots and the count today. The mob was not going to stop Congress from performing its constitutional duty. President Trump’s exhortations were not going to stop either Congress or Vice President Mike Pence from performing their constitutional duties. Some media called today’s acts an ‘Insurrection,” as if attacking police stations and court houses by a woke mob is not also an insurrection. Senator Mitt Romney, fervent Trump hater, said “What happened today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States.” Today is a warning to partisans on both sides to cool it. Some Democrats are calling for Trump’s impeachment. Today is not the first defilement of the Capitol. Four Puerto Rican nationalist terrorists on March 1, 1954 entered the Visitor’s Gallery of the Capitol and proceeded to file down onto the Chamber’s floor. Five Representatives were wounded. President Trump’s presidency ended today through self-destruction. He can still issue orders and pardons, but he is Dead President Walking for the next two weeks. He might as well resign.