January 6, 2021, is a day that will live in infamy.
There are only three days in American history that are peers of the perfidy of that day. They are April 12, 1861, December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001. Those three attacks against the United States began wars that killed more than 1,050,000 of our American brothers and sisters of all races, creeds, nationalities and religions. None of those horrific days that unleashed orgies of blood and violence are the equal of January 6, which, 158 years after the end of the American Civil War, marked the high water mark of the Confederate States of America. It was the day the Confederate battle flag finally breached the “citadel of democracy,” and was carried high through the Capitol rotunda. The American flag was desecrated on that day. It became a weapon of violence and sedition as the poles to which it was attached became bludgeons to beat and kill police officers.
The violence wasn’t accidental, and it wasn’t spontaneous. It was something that I predicted would happen in September 2020:
It was organized, and it was planned. It was incited and stoked by a cabal of extremists at the direction of the defeated president of the United States, who sought to overturn the legitimate results of a presidential election in the 244th year of the independence of the United States. It was the greatest act of treachery in American history. It nearly succeeded, and if it had, the result would have ended the American experiment begun in 1776. It would have made the illegitimate Trump a dictator.
When American independence was won at Yorktown the Marquis de Lafayette said, “Humanity has its victory. Liberty has a country.” Lafayette considered the American Revolution to be humanity’s greatest moment. He viewed the triumph as the beginning of the end of injustice and tyranny. He viewed the spread of global liberty and freedom as inexorably derivative of the American Revolution. He foresaw the end of slavery, colonialism and tyranny as a result of the victory. He believed the light of liberty lit in the new world would be the salvation of the old. He believed America was the hope of mankind.
King George was fixated on George Washington. He would ask about him often. He wanted to know his intentions, and wondered if he would become a king or emperor atop an American empire even greater than the British. When he was told that Washington would retire to Mt. Vernon, and transfer power to John Adams, he was flabbergasted. He said that if that was true Washington would be the greatest man of his or any age.
The peaceful transition of power is Americas’s greatest invention. It endured from 1797 to 2021. It ended when Donald Trump, a man who took the same oath taken by Washington and Lincoln, attacked his country, and tried to become a tyrant. It is the greatest and most shameful betrayal in American history.
He did not act alone. His sedition was supported, cheered, enabled and incited by a few thousand Americans that included nearly every elected Republican member of the US House of Representatives, and a dozen members of the United States Senate. Together, they sought to topple the republic in the name of Donald Trump. Of course they failed, but it was not for a lack of effort. This event is the greatest crime and betrayal in American history. January 6 will forever be a day of national shame. January 6 is Donald Trump’s legacy. It is his only legacy.
January 6 is America’s most tragic day. It marks our most shameful hour. It must always be remembered.
******************************************************
For those who are interested, I did a radio interview with RN Breakfast in Australia yesterday. Feel free to have a listen to my reflections on January 6, the most dangerous immigrant to ever arrive on American shores, the current Speaker saga and the Republican party. Here’s the link:
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/two-years-since-capitol-hill-riot/101831212?utm_campaign=abc_radionational&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_radionational
We need to bring all involved to justice. Otherwise the ugliness of this cabal will continue to metastasize. “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.” - Dorothy Parker
I remember January 6 in the same way I have clear memories of 9/11 & the day JFK was shot while a student in elementary school. Thanks for the succinct description of the meaning of 1/6. The Republican gaslighting of the incident needs to be called out until all those involved are brought to justice.