This Is Not Who We Are … This Is Who They Are

Anyone paying even a modicum of attention the past five years was not surprised by what came to pass, is still coming to pass, in our nation’s capital today. This has been the endgame all along. Concentration of power, destabilization of our government, obliteration of our norms.

And the onslaught, the raging, rushing, never ceasing river of lies that have facilitated it all. Lie after lie stacked like kindling. Criminal activity and venality poured on top like lighter fluid. All just waiting for the match that would set it all ablaze.

That match came today in the form of the world’s biggest loser, liar, and wannabe mob boss, Donald Trump. Standing in front of his assembled throng of low IQ, no IQ supporters, he finished his victimy screed with the order to march to the Capitol Building.

So they did. And as the news cameras shared it all live, as pictures and video filled social media, we watched as the Capitol was breached, as glass doors and windows were broken, as these insurrectionists swarmed and entered. As the House and Senate were in separate areas debating the first of many planned, theatrical objections, Mike Pence was quickly swept away by Secret Service. The certification of the electoral votes was stopped, lawmakers were told to get on the floor, to grab the gas masks under their seats. Then they were taken to secure locations along with the press.

As the afternoon has dragged on, it has been stomach turning to see what has been transpiring. The wholesale violation of this nation’s highest halls of legislature. Hundreds of rioters crawling like roaches through the halls, into offices, and finally into the chambers of the House and the Senate.

For people who like to crow about law and order, rule of law, and call themselves patriots, this was nothing short of them creating their own Benghazi. On a much larger scale. That blood was shed? No one was shocked.

It is at times like this that pundits, lawmakers, and journalists like to invoke the “this is not who we are” sentiment. I have done it myself. It is a cry for sanity, for probity, for rational thought to return and for calmer heads to prevail. It means to speak to whatever is happening being an aberration, something so far from our norms that those perpetrating it can somehow be forgiven for the momentary lapse.

No. Not this time.

Here’s the reality. This is not who WE are. Decent society. The part of society that actually understands law, laws, order, social justice, peaceful protest. The part of society that understands it doesn’t always go our way: see 11/2016. The part of society that would never crash the halls of the Capitol, taking selfies at the dais where Pence just stood, looting, violating the offices of our leaders, pawing through the hastily left papers, emails on computers.

No, this is not who WE are. But this is exactly who THEY are.

Trump and his supporters are the absolute worst of society, the dregs, the hypocrites, the idiots who have no idea what the Constitution they swear to hold so dear even contains, much less what the words mean. They are vile, vulgar creatures who think the louder they are, the righter they are. They are incredibly stupid. That has been, and is, to our advantage.

Think about it. From Trump, a man who is the personification of the word puerile, to the dullardly lackeys he installed, to the completely inexperienced-at-anything children he placed in positions of power, to the cowardly, dullardly supporters we are watching tonight — they are stupid from the top to the bottom. And we are lucky. Smarter people with these kinds of ill intentions; savvy folks with an eye towards grift and graft; intelligent operatives looking to undermine? We would be far and away more fucked than we are on this day.

Their sedition is out in the open. Their violations thinly covered, easily revealed. Their leader unable to stay off Twitter — hell, 13 year old girls have more restraint. And their followers? Well, just look at the pride with which they took pictures and posted them all over social media today as they tore down the American flag on the outside of Congress to replace it with a Trump flag.

Small aside on that one. Seriously, watching them scale a scaffold and tear it down was bad enough, but then the man threw it to the ground. These are the same people who still want Colin Kaepernick lynched for kneeling during the National Anthem. Make it make sense. You can’t because they are stupid and you are not.

Their shiny, happy, mouthbreathing faces gladly facing front, and smiling for the cameras as they carried items they looted, as they stood in the well of the Senate, as they lounged in Nancy Pelosi’s office. They will be caught. And there is not room for forgiveness here. They must be arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned. These are the threat to our society, not the mom who thought it was ok to vote in Texas (with a felony) and is in jail for five years, and not the teen who stole a backpack, was stuffed into Riker’s and ultimately killed himself.

These cretins are criminals, their gathering a mob, their actions those of terrorists. This is who they are.

There are still those who attempt some apology type tour for these people — that they have been lied to, fed so much disinformation, are gullible. FUCK THAT WITH A PORCUPINE STRAPPED TO A JACKHAMMER. They are not victims of a skilled hypnotist. They are willing followers of a filthy carnie. They are ugly, vile, venal thugs who revel in their behavior, who lust for our horrified reactions. They chose Trump. They gravitated to his odious messages during the 2016 campaign. They flocked because of what he gave permission to — their racism, their bigotry, their anti-intellectualism, their baser instincts. And they forever must be treated as the pariahs they are. They deserve no safe quarter, no place to hide, no redemption tours when they are voted out of office.

As I sit here typing, the news is reporting that the woman we all saw being rolled away drenched her in her own blood, shot at the Capitol, has died. More details are still forthcoming (she was a pro-Trump insurgent who crashed in through the broken windows, ignoring Secret Service warnings to stop), but anyone who saw it live knew it was bad. That much blood on the outside means there is precious little left on the inside. And that blood is on Trump, on his henchmen, on his paid liars like McEneny and Conway and Sanders, on his adult children who say anything necessary to stay in the will. That blood is on Cruz and Hawley and every other politician who saw this certification as a way to position themselves for their own presidential run in 2024. Their opportunism has consequences.

But they don’t care. None of them. They care as much about the dead woman today as they have cared about the now 368,756 people dead from COVID. They don’t care about the insurrectionists who will end up in prison for their terrorist attack today. Trump won’t speak on their behalf in court. Ivanka won’t bring them cookies in prison.

This is who they are.

And we knew, we have known all along. Hell, Hillary knew when she called them “deplorable.” That descriptor is quaint in comparison to their behavior over the past four years. We knew, we said it out loud, we warned about what would transpire under Trump and we were called hysterical, sore losers, snowflakes. And we were told to fuck our feelings. A lot.

What happened today was telegraphed right down the line. For weeks these Proud Boys and incels and MAGAts have been all over social media planning this. We are not surprised, we are sickened to see it come to pass. With every tweet that called them to travel to DC, with every rally that fomented violence and fed them a full trough of lies, we knew today would not pass without incident. This was on an American flight last night on its way to DC.

And so it begins.

On a plane from TX → DC flight attendants are struggling to control a plane full of Trump supporters as they display a pro-Trump projection and harass others passengers bound for DC.

[DM to license]#dc #trump #trumprally #protest #thisisamerica #sos pic.twitter.com/BlTCbD8ntl

— Maranie R. Staab (@MaranieRae) January 6, 2021

WE KNEW. That the security was so lax? My husband compared it to a 9/11 level security hole that must be addressed immediately. Anyone who has ever been to the Capitol knows how secure it typically is — metal detectors must be walked through, bags searched. Watching these terrorists simply saunter in unchallenged demands rapid investigation and resolution — this did not happen without acquiescence on the part of some level of security.

President Elect Joe Biden addressed the nation calling for calm, but also calling this exactly what it is — sedition and insurrection. I can only imagine his thoughts watching the place he called “home” for his entire career, be overrun in this manner. As he left the podium, he responded to a shouted question with “Enough is enough is enough!” Anger. Good.

Trump, who one can easily envision masturbating to the unfolding scenes of chaos, Confederate and Trump flags paraded through the halls, and a bumblefuck supporter kicked back in Pelosi’s office, was finally convinced by staff to release a statement. It came in the form of a minute long video he posted to Twitter. A message that was immediately flagged by Twitter for the bullshit it was and for the violence it encouraged. He began by whining about the election being stolen. That he won in a landslide. No, no he did not. Get that shit through your soft heads, MAGAts, he lost in a landslide. All your boat armadas, truck parades, and super spreader rallies spoke only to your blazing stupidity, not your numbers. We outnumber you, we always have. Your beloved racism and hatred will not win the day, will not win today — and Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20th.

Trump finished with the most bile inducing words to his useful idiots — “we love you, you’re very special.” Wow, just wow. Those words turned to “fine people on both sides” and said “Hold my keg.”

There were not special people in DC today. There were criminals. There were malcontents, and malingerers, and MAGAts. There were domestic terrorists. And Donald J Trump loves them. Because they are all that stand between him and finally facing consequences in his girdled, lifted, Adderalled, grifting life. They are all that separate him from his vision of himself and finally having to face the truth — HE IS A LOSER.

Today did hold three moments of hope. Reverend Warnock, the son of a woman who picked cotton, is being sent to the Senate. Georgia’s first Black Senator. Jon Ossoff is being sent to the Senate. The youngest Senator, at 33, since … wait for it … Joe Biden. Georgia turned blue. With 50 Senators and Kamala Harris as the tie breaker, meaningful changes will finally begin. And Merrick Garland will be Biden’s Attorney General. Beautiful.

Oh, and Mitch McConnell got kicked to the curb. Note — anyone who wants to call him a hero for his speech today before all hell broke loose? Save it. That he mumbled some correct words about the process does not erase the years he has facilitated the steps taken to get us to what happened today. He is part and parcel of all of it. THAT is his legacy.

The days ahead will not be better, if anything, there is serious reason to believe they will be worse. Far too many interviewed today threatened a return to the Capitol only next time with weapons. They are angry, aggressive, armed toddlers who have been denied another helping of rancid Goldfish crackers, and we must be vigilant. No one should have to die simply because they are too stupid, too lazy, too willfully ignorant to embrace facts. But to think it won’t happen is to indulge in fantasy.

We have seen who they are, and they have have but one choice before them. Open their eyes and see what is possible, that their lives will actually be bettered in the four years to come, or continue to churn and squirm in place, feeding on their victimhood complex, following that decomposing gourd to his/their graves. They may choose to join humanity or choose to rot in reviled obscurity.

We will persevere. We will move forward. We are finally, fully awake and will not waste this opportunity that is now in our hands. From the environment to equal rights to voter rights to finally addressing policing and discrimination and immigration and on and on — we have a chance to make real differences. And we will. The United States of America has always been an experiment, a high ideal, an imperfect union. Under Trump we have fallen so very far, but we are ready for the challenge of picking this nation up, dusting her off, and moving forward.

Because that is who WE are.