Never Forget!

"Don't take for granted how quiet the Capitol will be today.

It's because today in America, tragically, only one party respects elections. The other party uses and justifies violence to keep power.

Had Harris won, today likely would have been another bloodbath." ~  Senator Chris Murphey

January 6, 2021 was America’s Domestic Day of Infamy. The reaction of the party of Trump and more recently the indifference by the voting public brought the deepest shame and dishonor to our nation since the era of slavery.

We now have a convicted felon and insurrectionist for president! 

Well done, America, home of the duped MAGA cult, low-information voters, and apathetic masses.

The greatest American tragedy of the 21^st Century has been welcomed back, only to be compounded.

Just one example of the turncoat behavior is found in the words and actions of U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

He once delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

 

January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like.             

Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election.

Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.

The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.

The issue is not only the President’s intemperate language on January 6th. It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged “trial by combat”. It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-President.

I defended the President’s right to bring any complaints to our legal system. The legal system spoke. The Electoral College spoke. As I stood up and said clearly at the time, the election was settled.

But that reality just opened a new chapter of even wilder and more unfounded claims.

The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things. Sadly, many politicians sometimes make overheated comments or use metaphors that unhinged listeners might take literally.

This was different. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories, orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.

 

Those are some noble and honest words, long since evaporated into the fascist void of MAGA.

But McConnell’s actions spoke louder. He stole and filled two Supreme Court seats with Trump loyalists who defied our Constitution and destroyed our ideal of equal justice under law. 

Then the morally feeble and spineless hypocrite proceeded to vote “not guilty” in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. Finally he supported the convicted felon for reelection. The Republican Party and corrupt Supreme Court went on to renounce truth, decency, and the rule of law.

Sadly, America will not soon recover from their treachery, if ever.

It is up to the people of consciousness and conscience to endure and ultimately prevail over the evil darkness of lies and hate in the halls of power. If not, Putin won and America is lost.

Never forget!

Officer Daniel Hodges

Officer Michael Fanone