A Page 1 editorial in the Nov. 25 Item asked, “Can we fix it?” It began with the sentence, “America is resilient, they say.” Publisher Ted Grant concluded the commentary by stating he was not optimistic about prospects for the nation healing the political wounds left gaping and bleeding following the Nov. 3 election.
No wonder.
On Wednesday, two months and three days after the election, chaotic events rapidly unfolding on television, computer desktop and mobile device screens, proved that those wounds have not healed.
Vanquished President Donald J. Trump, on his way to history’s exit ramp, rallied his most fervent supporters for a last-ditch bid to demonstrate his claim that the Nov. 3 election was rigged and fraudulent.
Two weeks before a functioning democracy ejects him from office, for once and for all, Trump disgraced the office of the presidency by encouraging his most fanatic supporters to rally on his behalf and denounce an election, that all facts and analysis has declared legal and official, in its validation of Trump’s defeat.
On Wednesday, protesters waving flags and equipped to do harm to life, limb and property, converged on the U.S. Capitol. The Associated Press chronicled a grim litany of government under siege:
“1:55 p.m. The U.S. Capitol Police are evacuating some congressional office buildings …”
“2:50 p.m. Members of Congress inside the House chamber were told by police to put on gas masks …”
“4 p.m. The Pentagon says about 1,100 D.C. National Guard members are being mobilized …”
At 4:11 p.m., President-elect Joseph R. Biden went on national television to condemn what he called a “God-awful display” at the Capitol. Biden called on Trump to “step up … enough is enough is enough.”
Ten minutes later, Trump reaffirmed his insistence about a rigged election and told protesters to go home.
Six days into a new year, on a day when the COVID-19 virus continued to kill Americans and people around the world, Americans laid siege to their seat of government. Nineteen years ago, people fled the Capitol under threat of an attack by airborne terrorists. That was five decades after protesters marched on the Capitol demanding an end to war in Vietnam, and a century and a half after Southern congressmen left Washington for their newly-proclaimed confederacy.
Did America reach a crossroads on Jan. 6, 2021? What road do we now take?
Abraham Lincoln, speaking at the Illinois State Republican Convention in 1858, warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Richard M. Nixon denounced voices demanding change 110 years later by appealing to America’s “silent majority.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, democracy was in full display in America. Voters in Georgia sent a Black pastor and another Democrat to the U.S. Senate to tip the balance of political power away from Republicans.
Trump’s loyalists and a broader band of disaffected citizens stormed the Capitol and faced off at the House Chamber’s doors with police aiming handguns through the chamber doors’ broken windows.
On Nov. 3, 2020, Donald J. Trump once again lost the popular vote. But on Dec. 14, unlike in 2016, Trump also lost the Electoral College and, on Jan. 6, Congress moved to make that loss official.
Go away, President Trump, and let President-elect Biden begin the hard work of healing a nation traumatized by COVID-19, thanks to your leaderless presidency, and shore up the democratic principles you trampled on and abused.
Goodbye and shame on you for disgracing the presidency one last time.