By Calvin Hill
It has been one month since death, destruction and public defecation have violently visited the nation’s Capitol. After Jan. 6th, I think we can dispense with those who become incensed when references of Hitler are made when discussing Donald Trump. Hitler did not start out by bombing Europe and death marching Jews into ovens. Before Auschwitz, death camps and Kristallnacht, Adolf Hitler was a loudmouth, racist, anti-Semitic street orator. There are survivors, their children, and escapees of the Third Reich who have warned of how those atrocities began.
One year ago, an American racist, anti-Semitic loudmouth, playing at being President of the United States, told lies so deadly, it was difficult to believe that the lie that brought about Insurrection Day 2021 could possibly be worse. But it was. By denying to himself, and others, that Joe Biden pulled off a clear and convincing victory to be the next US President, Donald Trump set in motion, a violent assault on the nation’s Capitol that left several people dead, a rebel flag paraded through the building as though the South had won the Civil War, brazen rioters breaking into Congressional offices, stealing government property and demanding that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, get a bullet to the head and Vice President Mike Pence be lynched. For one group of Americans, it probably sounded like a herd of armed Klansmen rampaging through their neighborhood looking for the elusive, albeit innocent, rapist of a white woman.
The people, who were appalled because Hillary Clinton had called them deplorable, rained havoc on American democracy in action. Former assistant to VP Mike Pence on the COVID19 Task Force, Olivia Troye, resigned when Trump heaved the last straw on the camel’s back. The Donald audaciously said, at a task force meeting, that maybe the coronavirus was a good thing because, “Now I don’t have to shake hands with those disgusting people.” The very supporters of his, whom he lied to at rallies, gave false information to at briefings, and gave false hope about untested treatments and therapeutics, were disgusting. Ms. Troye had had enough.
As deaths have piled up among those “disgusting,” and those innocent, it was also a year ago that Trump told author and journalist, Bob Woodward, the truth about the coronavirus. In the 4 years of the Trump presidency and the year and a half campaign before it, one would be hard pressed to find any period in which Donald Trump told the truth more than he did to Bob Woodward. Trump claimed he “Didn’t want to cause a panic,” and “Nothing more could have been done.” However, telling us the truth, and providing proper preparation would have prevented any alleged panic.
The American people were not well served by those close to Donald Trump and the leaders of his party. They repeatedly enabled his fly by the seat of his pants decision making and torrent of lies. Americans tend to, and want to, believe the POTUS when he says. “We have it all under control.” When it is not, bad decisions are made. Among the bad decisions made by the GOP have been their backing of Mr. Trump. It has led to the destruction that they predicted would occur if he ever became the nominee and, eventually, were elected. Their short sighted support has led to a cadre of brown shirted like, anti-democratic fanatics willing to believe any Trump orated lie, and has created their own racist, anti-Semitic, conspiracy theorizing “Greene New Deal,” resulting in a QAnon inspired cadre of Nazi-like youth soldiers parading as American patriots.
President Biden faces a hill to climb, higher and steeper than any other President in our lifetime. His desire for bipartisanship to get children and teachers safely back to school, restore a semblance of food and housing security, get Americans back to work, and provide a more energy efficient America, while admirable, is not possible while the majority of Congressional Republicans are deathly afraid of Donald Trump’s shadow, in addition to their leaders’ inability to negotiate in good faith. Biden’s time and energy would be better spent uniting red and blue state Americans by pushing forward a household agenda sans GOP. That means feeding people, properly educating their children, properly medicating their diseases without sending them into bankruptcy, and vaccinating their friends, neighbors and co-workers.
Americans are dying by the thousands each day while the Republicans are obsessed with promoting dangerous and deadly lies to the 74 million Trump voters as white supremacists arm and conspire to civil war at any cost. These Republicans see no evil and hear no evil while evil is being spoken at deafening levels. It threatens to tear apart the very fabric of our democracy. And they have relegated, from their own party members and constituents, calls for the assassination of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the lynching of the VPOTUS, Mike Pence, and the murder of non-white members of Congress to be collateral damage in service to their losing “fuhrer.”
President Biden does not have a lot of time to stave off a looming catastrophe. The White House and the Democrats could be one more Pat Leahy trip to the hospital of putting #MoscowMitch back in charge of the Senate. Donald Trump, whose educational capacity was so limited that his sister claimed she had to do his homework, has elevated the big lie to be an “alternative fact.” Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Matt Gaetz and credibly accused molester protector, Jim Jordan, et.al. have patronized the big lie. Unfortunately, there is no mass vaccine for believing the truth anywhere on the horizon.
The Op-Ed Alternative 