Democracy Besieged
January 6th, 2021
Treason: “the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.”
Even four years ago, it was pretty clear for many of us that the current administration would be an unconventional one at best. When stating that Trump was dangerous, many laughed it off as his incompetence is just as evident. The problem here is not merely one of incompetence on a political and administrative level, but also a proclivity towards authoritarian measures, talking points, figures and behaviors. The president has routinely gone out of his way to praise absolutist leaders like Kim Jong Un, Erdogan, Xi Jinping and of course Vladimir Putin.
We’ve all seemingly shrugged off the US intelligence communities’ investigations finding that Russia intervened in the 2016 election, and while we succeeded in impeaching the president over his call to the Ukrainian president Zelenskiy, the senate (under Moscow Mitch) failed to ultimately convict him. Having said that, let’s talk about the simple fact that Trump has had multiple private visits with Vladimir Putin without any public transcripts of what was actually said in these meetings. As president of the United States, one is entrusted with an enormous amount of incredibly highly classified information, information that in the wrong hands could be catastrophic for both the United States and the global balance of power as a whole. The very notion that any of this information even might have been transferred to ANY hostile foreign power should be enough to warrant a deep and independent investigation of the current administration. Once again, the trouble here is how wide spread the current corruption reaches, it’s no longer a conspiracy theory, it’s a series of blatant acts of treason which we have routinely ignored in the hopes that it will go away. The Constitution of the United States of America is not only at risk, it’s been systematically broken down and stomped upon over these last four years. From voter suppression, to profiting from the office of the presidency, we’ve seen the swamp drained, only to be refilled with a level of corruption we never could have imagined.
This is not about Republicans vs Democrats, this is not about left versus right, this is about the Rule of Law, Democracy and everything it stands for, against the same Tyranny that this Country was founded AGAINST. Taxation without representation? How about a global pandemic causing more deaths than 9/11 every single day, without any sign of actual intervention or relief from our so-called leaders? As of right now more than 350,000 Americans have now died from Coronavirus, but seemingly half the population is convinced that these numbers are inflated, and the virus itself is a hoax to keep Trump from getting re-elected.
Delusion: “an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.”
For a moment let’s approach the idea that these numbers regarding the virus’ death toll are being inflated, even if that’s the slightest bit true, why are we still so seemingly unwilling to temporarily inconvenience ourselves in order to protect the lives of everyone around us? As of right now almost 1.9million people have died from the virus across the globe, but we still haven’t even gotten to the stage of accepting that it exists. It’s impossible to say how many lives might have been saved if our reaction had been more immediate, both globally and domestically.
The corruption we are currently seeing goes beyond the countless lies, beyond the blatant criminality and into the realm of not only contempt for the rule of law but also blatant treason. Our administration has failed to condemn the placing of bounties upon US soldiers heads by Russia, the December 2020 Russian hacking of the US intelligence community, while encouraging foreign interference in our elections. Among the most damning evidence of this relationship between Trump and Putin is Trump’s repeatedly negative if not outright hostile interactions with our allies both inside and beyond NATO, while advocating against any and all sanctions against Russia yet also advocating for their readmittance to the G7, despite their 2014 annexation of Crimea.
(the following cnn article goes into greater detail listing 37 ways trump has been soft towards Russia, but was written in November of 2019 and thus doesn’t account for this last year’s worth of pro-Russian behavior. 37 times Trump was soft on Russia (cnn.com) written by Marshall Cohen.)
As of Today, January 6th 2020, Capital Hill is under siege, armed protestors waving Trump flags have stormed the legislative building forcing legislators to evacuate and leading to an armed standoff at the House chamber doors. Due to today’s planned electoral college ratification of President-elect Joe Biden by the Congress, these armed rioters have taken matters into their own hands. While the only word from the president as of yet is for them to “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” and “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order — respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” via his favorite form of communication, tweeting.
With these concise paragraphs I have barely even scratched the surface of the monstrosity that is Trump’s assault on Democracy. If we don’t wake up now, and truly wake up at that, this corruption will continue to spread beyond the outgoing administration.
