One Small Voice: My real time take on Capitol mess

by Lynn Mandaville

Republicans, do you see what you have enabled all these four years that an unstable, megalomanic has sat in the role of President of the United States?

1:10PM in Arizona, 3:10PM Eastern Standard Time, and the United States Capitol has been overrun by protesters, some of whom have breached the Senate and House chambers.

President Trump held a rally this morning at which he stirred up the crowd over the alleged rigging of the 2020 presidential election.  He bad-mouthed his AG, William Barr, and he disparaged his vice president, Mike Pence, for not having the guts to reject the votes of the electors.

Apparently, he spewed his usual conspiracy theories, his baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him.

It’s reported that he instructed his followers to march on the Capitol, saying that he would join them.  And then the crowd dispersed to the Capitol while Trump went back to the White House, where, I wouldn’t be surprised, he is watching this unfold on his television set.

Oh, how he must be relishing this display.

Meantime, Capitol Police have so far have shown themselves to be completely unprepared to handle violence that was not unanticipated.

Crowds apparently had no trouble breaking into the Senate and House chambers.

Fortunately, it seems that the Vice President and the Speaker of the House have been removed to secure locations, as has Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, who is a sitting senator until Jan. 20.

Congresspersons are sheltering in place.

Republicans, you had the opportunity to remove this maniac from office during the impeachment proceedings, but none of you, save Mitt Romney, had the fortitude to stand up to your fearless leader, to hold him to account, to remove him from the office for which many of us knew him to be utterly unfit.

Republican leadership in the Senate and House who have sided with this president are calling for Trump to speak up, to restore order, to DO SOMETHING to end this madness.

But Trump remains silent.

One person has been removed from the Capital by EMT personnel, a woman, bloodied badly and carried out on a stretcher.

How have we come to this?

I’ll tell you how.

Well-meaning Americans were taken in by a charlatan.  They adopted his belief that it’s OK to ignore basic rules of comportment, even to disobey the basic rule of law and the oath of office he took to defend the Constitution back in January of 2017.

Americans have been suckered into believing that the American free press is the enemy of the people.

Americans have been suckered into believing that laws apply only to common people, not the president or his cohorts or his relatives.

Americans have been snookered.

And the result is that protesters have stormed the Capitol, officials are mired in the bureaucratic process of having the National Guard activated and deployed to regain control.  Already there are calls for the immediate impeachment of Donald Trump, though only 14 days remain in his term.

People around the world are watching the United States devolve into a third-world nation.

And still the President is silent.

The talking heads are truly distressed that they are witnessing this event.  They keep repeating “I can’t believe I’m seeing this.  I can’t believe we’ve come to this.”

The process of validating the votes of the electoral college stands incomplete.

People across the country are deeply troubled by these events.

And still the President is silent.

What will be the ultimate outcome of this event?

Will it be called a coup?  Will it be termed an uprising?  Will it be dismissed as a bunch of hot-headed, pissed-off people venting their spleens?

Who will be held accountable?  Whose consciences will be troubled that they have had a hand in this result of four years of poor leadership?

In my not so humble opinion, anyone and everyone who has defended this administration and this president, anyone who has seconded the rhetoric of Trump Republicans, has a stake in the responsibility for this situation.

It will be many hours before we know the full extent of today’s activities, but certainly the whole story will not be good.

Now is the time for complete introspection by Republicans to inspect their hearts, minds and souls.

Can you take any pleasure in what has occurred today?  Do you honestly believe that this is the American way to solve our differences?  To respond to results of an election that you don’t like?

Never more than now have I wished for sanity and peace.