One patriot’s concerns
It was a year ago — a long year ago it seems — that insurrectionists invaded and ransacked the U.S. Capitol. We watched in horror as the citadel of our democratic republic came under attack, not spontaneously but rather at the urging of the outgoing president of the United States. Donald J. Trump incited the riot and his minions planned, financed and executed it.
His goal was unambiguous: He was determined to prevent the orderly and peaceful transfer of power to the newly — and legitimately —elected president and vice president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Those are the facts. Fanciful or delusional claims to the contrary will not, cannot be allowed to erase the truth.
As bad as what happened last Jan. 6 was, it was just one phase in an ongoing campaign to undermine civic and constitutional norms in our country.
It is bad enough that Donald Trump and his co-conspirators continue to spread the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Worse is the fact that millions of our fellow citizens believe it. And, worse still, we now have evidence that several million of our citizenry are, apparently, ready to act on the lie with further violence, to commit treason in the name of a demonstrably and entirely false belief.
Serious students of American history believe we are at the most perilous time since the 1860s. Our first Civil War was fought in piney woods and across cornfields and pastures. Civil War 2.0, if we allow it, will be fought with assassinations, car bombs and vigilantism. America will come to resemble Belfast and Sarajevo, rather than Bull Run or Sharpsburg.
The traitorous running around and among us are a distinct minority, but they cannot be ignored. Eye rolls, no matter how exaggerated, are not the response required. My former boss, President Jimmy Carter, recently wrote in the New York Times that we must “demand that our leaders and candidates uphold the ideals of freedom and adhere to high standards of conduct.”
Ordinarily, that would seem to be a modest request. Today, however, they represent the essential first steps in saving our democracy.