304 Days to Save Democracy
It’s January 6th again. Today is the third anniversary of the day “tourists” trespassed on the United States capitol.
Or if your sources of news and “truth” extends beyond divisive profiteering propaganda on FoxNews and oligarch-controlled social media networks, today is the third anniversary of the day a would-be dictator named Donald J. Trump baited an angry mob into a violent and seditious attempt to end 245 years of U.S. democracy.
Donald J. Trump solicited, welcomed and benifitted from Putin’s interference in the 2016 election. Then used his bully pulpit to gaslight millions of Americans into believing this didn’t happen.
So it should surprise no one that on January 6th 2021 Trump also invited, welcomed and benefited from U.S. capitol violence which threatened our democracy. He and his cowardly Republican sycophants hope they can gaslight us into accepting their version of what happened that day. We must never forget!
Trump told us what he would do
Even the so-called “Trump derangement syndrome” pessimists who predicted Trump’s attempted coup more than a year before it happened were shocked at how close he came to destroying our nation on that terrible day.
Patriots stood against cowards
A handful of patriotic individual Americans were the tip of the iceberg that sank Donald J. Trump’s first attempt at leveraging violence to seize power as America’s first dictator:
- Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman led Senator Mitt Romney away from danger, escorted the Vice President and diverted a violent mob away from senate chambers.
- A U.S. Marine reminded his father that both had taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution. This man was Mike Pence’s son.
- Mike Pence refused to get in the secret service car and risk being removed from his constitutional duty to count (not change) electoral votes.
- A staffer told Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson to not send fake elector ballots for Wisconsin and Michigan.
- Young White House aid Cassidy Hutchinson told her boss Mark Meadows to “do something” and said he smelled like a bonfire (presumably from all of the documents he burned that day.)
- Arizona state speaker Rusty Bowers faced pressure and the opportunity to abandon his own conscience and the will of God in order to illegally throw Arizona’s electoral votes to Donald J. Trump. He did not so pro-Trump terrorists slandered and threatened him, his family and his gravely ill daughter. Speaker Bowers(R) gave up his political career as a Republican because of his commitment to our nation. So did Elizabeth Chaney(R) and Adam Kinzinger(R).
- Wandrea’ ArShaye (“Shaye”) Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman were Georgia poll workers. Pro-Trump liar Rudy Giuliani slandered them with an accusation that a video showing them passing a breath mint proved that they had tried to steal votes. Shaye, Ruby and her Grandmother faced threats of violence from pro-Trump terrorists.
- Several capitol police officers sacrificed their lives for our country.
- A pro-Trump mob surrounded black Capitol police officer Harry Dunn. He heard some of them yell racial slurs while others chanted, “Kill him with his own gun!” He was armed and trained in the use of deadly force when faced with a direct and severe threat of his own death but he decided not to shoot. When later asked why not he said, “Who do I shoot?” Can anyone imagine what would have happened if he had fired into the crowd that day?
Officer Dunn was one of the many quiet patriots who saved our nation that day. Afterwards he sobbed and asked one of his fellow officers, “Is this America?” But the strength of his patriotism has grown more powerful and he just announced that he is running for Congress because:
“We’re literally an election away from the extinction of democracy as we know it. Trump is gaining even more traction, and his supporters are getting even stronger and more emboldened, and we need people that are willing to step up and fight back.”
Each of us has a small but very important role to play in saving our nation. For the next 304 days Donald J. Trump and his propagandists will try to:
- Tell your family and friends that you hate them and our country.
- Distract us from Trump’s role in empowering Hamas, Hezbollah, violent Israeli extremists, Khamenei, Kim Jong Un, the Taliban, Putin and Xi.
- Distract us from Trump’s role in dividing and weakening the U.S.
- Distract us from Trump’s role in weakening NATO and our allies.
- Use the fear of “wokeism”, LGBTQ+/trans people, people of color, immigrants to divide us.
- Use fake history to convince Americans that better times are behind us.
- Trumping up fear of vaccines and poor immigrants.
- Downplaying fears of deadly pandemics and nuclear armed madmen.
- FoxNews and its clones on social and traditional media will continue to support Trump as long as they can profit from the spread of his simpleminded but comforting lies.
What we must do:
- We must remind ourselves what we saw with our own eyes on January 6th 2021. Trump benefits from the psychological “illusion of truth” effect as the Nazis: “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth” — Joseph Goebbels
- If a friend, family member or acquaintance has fallen for Trump, we can show them our love and give them any respect they earn but we can not let them pull us into their toxic Q-anon rabbit hole!
- If a friend believes Joe Biden is too old, senile, “woke”, “pro-genocide” the cause of Putin’s war, global inflation and Trump’s pre-baked surrender of Afghanistan, learn as much as you can about these topics. You won’t be able to debate each $*&%Stream of lies in real-time but the confidence that comes from this understanding will help you ask them questions so they might learn on their own.
- Sometimes you won’t have to say anything. Your confidence will help you know when to use the appropriate facial expression and body language as you would with glue-sniffing evangelists at a Greyhound Bus depots.
- Remember what you saw on January 6th 2021!
- Remember how you felt on January 6th 2021!
- Please share this if you found it helpful!
I don’t have all of the answers but we must all work together out of patriotism and love for each other. We can’t sacrifice our beautiful nation in order to serve the demands of a deeply flawed man named Donald J. Trump.
