We've gotta talk

About the Failed Coup

So for the previous few days, I've been enjoying the much-needed break from having to always worry about what our nation is doing, knowing that President Biden is someone who doesn't wish to be a dictator. The one thing I haven't been able to shake from my mind is the failed coup by Republican members of Congress and their ilk and the fact that they are still somehow able to walk into the halls of power every day as if they played no part in the coup. I haven't and probably won't ever be able to shake that from my soul, what we witnessed by people who damn well know better but chose to go along with the falsehoods.

These Republican Congress members told countless lies about many states, including my home state of Pennsylvania, a Senator who has never, to my knowledge, visited the Keystone State decided to object to our electoral votes. One seeking civility would invite that Senator to Pennsylvania. However, I don't seek civility with these people; what I seek is justice. I seek justice for the officer who was killed and those injured, defending the only flag this nation has, the flag of the United States of America.

As much as Republicans want to pretend the confederate flag or even one of those idiotic flags that bear the coup leaders' name is America's rightful flag. They are wrong and forever will be. They will have to continue to deal with the eternal shame and damnation that comes with supporting a coup and standing by a leader who is an electoral loser and a twice impeached loser.

I don't seek to move on after the coup, because at the end of the day, it can happen here in America for so long we've thought our nation was immune to the authoritarians who were always right at the door waiting for a moment. Mr. Trump gave them that moment. The authoritarians seized that moment, sowing division over four years and repeating countless lies about people who voted. Blowing so many dog whistles in the process that so many Americans became tired, and so they decided to tune out. In contrast, many slept; others could see the hallmarks of the rising authoritarians. For example, Mr. Trump would conveniently mention Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We all know why the dog whistle or for those less enlightened white folks black people voted. Maybe you know they shouldn't be voting (it's why we now hear about voter ID laws from Republicans). Even the authoritarians have now discovered that they can't win an election if more people vote, so why not prevent some people from voting.

I don't seek to move on after the coup. I don't desire to break bread with members of a political party that led a coup against the United States of America. I seek several reforms to our democracy, like abolishing the electoral college. Let us face the facts if the electoral college doesn't exist. No Republican can ever get elected again nationally.

I don't seek to move on when one political party wants to play by a set of rules, and the other political party wants to destroy not only laws but the entire nation while watching everything burn to the ground so that they can attempt to remain in power. Here is what is terrifying to fathom for any American who understands our nation's norms and doesn't believe in giving an inch to the authoritarians what would have happened had Trump won a second term? He previously joked about how he wasn't just going to serve two terms. Fortunately, he lost the election, but as many have warned, this was the authoritarians' soft run.

What would have happened had the authorizations held the Senate and the House of Representatives? Would they have been successful in overturning the election? Would they have successfully installed a dictator? That is why we must insist on expelling those who sought to overturn the election results. It is why we must insist on reforming our democratic institutions to ensure we never come to the brink again.

I'll end with the following, and I do so not to keep one up at night, but as something for us to wrangle with, the first coup is rarely successful. When the second one occurs, it is already too late to save a democratic society.