The Predictable Avoidable Insurgency Of The Million Moron March

When the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress, in order to remain in power, this is an attempted coup. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. 

Trump must be impeached, convicted and removed from office – immediately. To let the clock run out on his presidency and allow Trump to seek the office again and receive the benefits and protections of a former president  would signal loudly that attempted coups are part of the American system. That we are NOT a nation of laws. If Senate Republicans can install a new supreme court justice in eight days, Trump can be removed from office within 12. He should then be arrested and tried for inciting violence and sedition – along with Donald Trump Jr and Rudy “trial-by-combat” Giuliani.

 Those who attacked the Capitol must also be prosecuted. The first amendment is not a right to try to violently physically overthrow the US government. Trump’s accomplices on Capitol Hill, most notably the Texas senator Ted Cruz and Missouri senator Josh Hawley, should be forced to resign.
 Knowing full well all Trump’s allegations of voting fraud were false, Cruz and Hawley led the move to exclude Biden electors – even after the storming of the Capitol – thereby lending Trump’s claims credibility.
 The United States constitution clearly says “no Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the constitution, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof”. There are 126 representatives and 6 other Senators who also conspired with Trump to overthrow the US government by promoting the completely false claims of election fraud lending the coup attempt credibility. If they will not publicly renounce their words and actions they must resign or be removed for violating the US constitution. No such person may hold these offices who "participate or give aid or comfort to rebellion against the constitution".

 Cruz and Hawley are eyeing runs for the presidency in 2024.
They should be barred from running.
 Other abettors are trying to distance themselves, but their conversions come too late.
 Senator Lindsey Graham now says Trump must “understand that his actions were the problem, not the solution”, and criticizes the White House for making “accusations that cannot be proven”.
But Graham was one of Trump’s key attack dogs, even bullying state election officials to change voting tallies. If Graham is not forced to resign, he should at least be censured and stripped of his ranking membership on the Senate judiciary committee.
 The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Vice-President Michael Pence finally broke with Trump, but only after remaining mute as Trump lied and bullied his way through the last eight weeks, thereby signaling agreement with his preposterous claims.
 McConnell should also resign or be censured and stripped of committee assignments.
Pence should be barred from public office.

Some officials have resigned in response to the attempted coup.
The transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, said it was “entirely avoidable” and the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, told Trump there was “no mistake the impact your rhetoric had”.
Other Trumpers are reportedly jumping ship too. Yet before Wednesday most of them defended Trump’s antics, lavished him with praise and did his dirty work. They are complicit. 

 Other accessories are Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company. For four years, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have functioned as Trump’s megaphones, amplifying his every lie and rant. When pressured to remove Trump’s fabrications about the election, they labeled them “disputed”. Twitter has now permanently suspended Trump, preventing him from sending messages to his more than 88 million followers “due to the risk of further incitement for violence”. Facebook has banned him indefinitely. YouTube should as well. But why did it take an attempted coup for them to act?

 Many business leaders now denouncing the violence enthusiastically bankrolled Trump’s re-election campaign, knowing full well who he was and what he was capable of doing.
They’ve had no qualms about advertising on his largest megaphones, such as Fox News.
All are complicit because they knew Trump was deranged, unstable and that he would stop at nothing. The mendacious hosts and producers have no excuse.
After repeatedly telling Trump supporters the election was stolen, they’re now saying the attempted coup was “understandable” because Trump supporters believed the election was stolen.
Morally, if not legally, they share responsibility for this travesty.

All are parts of a poisoned landscape that led to Trump’s traitorous  sedition.
That landscape is still uncleansed.

Those who say we should “look forward” to a new administration and forget or dismiss what occurred last week are delusional.
 Unless ALL who participated in or abetted the attempted overthrow of the US government are held accountable, it will happen again.  Democracy, fragile as it may be is the only known method of avoiding autocracy and tyranny. It prevailed on January 6th...but barely. Next time it may succeed if any of these traitors go unpunished.