The Capitol Riot Had the Republican Party’s Name All Over It
The Capitol Riot had the Republican Party’s name all over it
Oliver Berke
Indianapolis Star
WASHINGTON, D.C.—JANUARY 6TH—The capitol was aflame with both fire and the fury of the misguided masses.
Rioters (not protestors) lined up Pennsylvania avenue with a tragic vengeance, storming the steps of our center of all things legislation and power in our country at once. They burst through the bulletproof doors and windows like a hand through wet paper, thrusting away statues and security guards alike to put the presidential confirmation process into their own bloodied hands.
Those that laid siege to the Capitol, the ’insurrectionists’ as I’d much prefer to call them, were clearly a people on a mission.
That mission, their call to action?
The complete destruction of a democracy at work.
Laying down on my bed, having completed yet another day of whimsical Wednesday remote work, I thought I’d take a look at the Electoral College certification ceremony, maybe for a little while before returning to do other stuff.
I did not expect to be glued to my computer screen for two straight hours watching Confederate flags and other wretched symbols of white supremacy be paraded throughout the Capitol.
I couldn’t watch. I could not just sit there and spectate as the great symbol of our democracy in building form was senselessly desecrated and destroyed by an angry mob of…regular old Americans. No, not terrorists from the far-off Middle East, nor any number of personnel from any foreign army, not even the redcoats burning the capital to the ground in 1814. As you’ve all been endlessly drilled to know at this point.
What we saw on January 6th, as it’s settled in clearly after over two months now of mourning and endlessly thinking, ”What the heck happened?”, was made in America. ’Homegrown Hate’, as ABC likes to spin it. Tried and true hatred and disrespect for our institutions and system of government, plain and simple. Spurred on by the very President of the United States – and carried on by none other than the Republican Party. What do you know?
The rioters didn’t just merrily decide to band together one day and storm one of the most hallowed buildings in our country’s history. No, this was far from any coincidental accusations or deviations of blame to groups such as Antifa, or some other crazy conspiracy.
They were fed lies for months on end by Trump and the party who’d do his bidding at every opportunity. To them, the election was rigged – it made perfect sense! The Democrats had concocted this master plan of espionage and manipulation of the system to get their way, facing up against democracy at work. An election stolen straight from under their noses! How could it possibly be that their presidential messiah could lose re-election? That was simply out of question, not a potential reality.
And so, they’d do what you’d expect a reasonable group of fed-up people would do when faced with a country on the brink of dictatorial takeover: Storm the capitol, naturally.
The GOP could’ve stopped the riot dead. They could’ve held up their arms and waved the white flag on this whole ’election fraud’ charade that they’d kept up since November 3rd and before.
They knew it wasn’t right -heck, they’ve had several blurbs to the media saying so. Just ask Ted Cruz, one of the party’s patriarchs! (And one of Trump‘s Number1 supporters, I might add.)
Cropped image taken from Politico (1)
(1) “On the other hand, President Trump’s rhetoric, I think, went too far… I think it was both reckless and irresponsible because he said repeatedly, he said over and over, he won by a landslide, it was all stolen everywhere… — the campaign did not prove that in any court, and to make a determination about an election, it has to be based on evidence. So simply saying the result you want, that’s not responsible” (From Breitbart, a backer of the Republican Party).
Shortly after, quite responsibly still questioning the integrity of the election. I’ll leave how hypocritical that is up to interpretation.
And that’s not all – he’s got plenty of more hits in store.
(2) “‘I think everyone needs to calm down,’ he said, ’I think we need to tone down the rhetoric [from his critics] … It’s like a tinderbox and throwing matches into it…’” -Politico, January 3rd.
Well said, Senator Cruz. What a spot-on prediction.
There’s more than just him, though. There are almost too many colorful characters to count at this point, all pitching in to sow doubt in the electoral process we’ve cherished for centuries.
(3) ”’Philadelphia elections are as crooked as a snake,’” cried out South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham on a Fox News segment a couple of days after the election.
His very subtle point hinges on the allegedly unfair treatment of Republican poll watchers during the city’s vote-counting, with the election officials barring them from watching as the ballots were counted. This amounted to widespread voter fraud and handing Pennsylvania over to Biden.
Sound logic, right? Well, until you realize that Trump’s own lawyers admitted to around a dozen poll-watchers being allowed on the main balloting site the whole time in a court appearance, therefore rendering that argument false. Not that the Republicans would stop using it.
Matt Gaetz, a Republican representative from Florida, as well as a staunch Trump loyalist, has also been the mastermind behind a brilliant defense for allegations of voter fraud.
(4) “’The main legal problem for the Trump team is that the illegal ballots have co-mingled with larger universes of ballots, so you can prove that there is fraud as to some ballots,’ Gaetz said. ‘But if those fraudulent ballots are then mixed into a larger pool, it’s very difficult to obtain remedies from the courts to exclude that entire pool of polluted ballots.’” – Newsweek, November 30th, 2020.
I’d say it would be very hard to completely disenfranchise and kick to the curb millions of votes, too, Congressman. The 50+ court cases accusing Biden-won states of voter fraud that have failed completely show that well.
(3) “’President Trump won the election,’ Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, declared Thursday Night (November 5th, 2020) … as some 140 million ballots tabulated nationwide showed Trump badly losing the popular vote, trailing in most battleground states and nowhere near clinching a majority in the Electoral College. ‘Everyone who is listening: Do not be quiet. Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.’”
Two months later, I could see why he’d have good reason to say that.
And finally, how about Josh Hawley, the other Republican of incredible responsibility and calm? And another of Trump’s favorites, of course.
Take a good look at how he casually implies the notion that Biden wouldn’t necessarily be taking office on January 20th, Inauguration Day.
(5) “’I [the news anchor] just want to pin you down… Are you trying to say that as of January 20th that President Trump will be president?’
‘Well,’ said Hawley, ’that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean, this is why we have to debate.’” — taken from The Guardian, on January 5th, a day before the riot.
He knew the election was over. He knew Biden would be rightfully certified to become the 46th president of the United States of America. Yet he left it all up in the air as to what was going to happen.
That’s all the rioters needed.
This was just the cherry on top.
thewayofimprovement.com
Senator Hawley pumping his fist in support of the protestors before entering Congress on January 6th, mere hours before they turned into rioters.
They would keep with the parlor tricks and carnival attractions of conspiracy theories throughout the election cycle. First, it was the astonishment at the votes slowly trickling in as election week went on. Who knew that in the era of Covid-19, perhaps things might move a little more slowly than usual? Apparently, the GOP didn’t, but we all knew it really did. Then, the famed case of Dominion computers malfunctioning and handing over hundreds upon thousands of votes over to Biden in a flash of light. Or, better yet, all the dead people who voted in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania.
Just priceless. Priceless politics, well at work.
They knew none of this was true, or right, for that matter. Nor did they care. Not at all.
Throughout the course of the Trump presidency, four long, frustrating years, we’ve seen how Trump and the GOP go hand-in-hand. Without Trump, the GOP doesn’t have a hands-on, no-holds-barred executive to haphazardly slam legislation and policy down America’s gullet. And a Trump lacking the undying support and loyalty from said party to legitimize and make righteous his every move in power? He’s nothing but an angry tweeter. Formerly, anyway.
It’s just disgusting for members of our revered and respected Congress to act like this. Our own congress, spreading lies and doubt aplenty about the integrity of democracy.
The very same congressional body that saw the riot’s own culprit, former President Trump, acquitted via the votes of 43 Republican senators on charges of insurrection, a month and a week to the day of January 6th, on February 14th.
To think that the party of Abraham Lincoln could allow a Confederate flag to be waved around on capitol grounds, free-of-charge.
That’s just the times we live in. But these are still times in which we should hold our lawmakers accountable nonetheless.
Sources:
(2). https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/03/ted-cruz-presidential-election-challenge-calm-down-453842
I'm the Political and Social Action editor for the Focus, and I've been on the Focus since Freshman year! (And I've been on school newspapers since 6th...