President Trump, insurrectionist
“As an American, I was disgusted.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, Assistant to chief of staff Mark Meadows
When I taught US history, I always stated that George Washington was our most influential president and that his voluntary stepping away from power – at Annapolis in 1783, when he informed the Congress that he had completed the mission they gave him, returned his commission, and begged permission to go home; and again in 1797 when he stepped down from the presidency (most people assumed he would serve until he died, a sort of elected King) and turned power over to John Adams. I then described the importance of the 1801 inauguration, the first time power was transferred between political foes. I described the traditional inauguration day ceremony – president elect and spouse call at the White House, greeted by the outgoing president and spouse, ride down Pennsylvania Ave. together, lately even the nice touch of the personal letter to the new president waiting in the “Oval.” I pointed out that often enough, these guys didn’t like each other, but that this civic ceremony was part of the glue that binds us together, an unbroken line extending back to 1797, the big reason we’ve never yet woken up to news that tanks have surrounded the White House and that Colonel so-and-so is now serving as acting president until new elections can be arranged.
I retired in 2015, so I never got the chance to add, well, at least that’s how it used to be.
With Donald Trump, you get used to the idea that there is never a bottom. Whether it’s profiteering from office, consorting with dictators, betraying state secrets, sucking up to Putin, abusing civil servants, or lying about the election, there’s no bottom: it ALWAYS gets worse. And, I fear, we also must get used to the idea that lots of things that were true through 44 presidencies aren’t any longer.
Most of us spent much of the past few weeks thinking we finally understood the depravity of the Trump administration. I felt comfortable saying he had literally met the treason test (“making war against the United States”). The image of Trump fully aware of what was planned on January 6, encouraging his followers ahead of time, watching in rapt attention as his supporters stormed the capitol, and refusing for hours to shut it down seemed pretty definitive. I opined that with what we knew, Trump had left the “worst president” peer group of Harding, Bush 43, and Buchanan and now entered the realm of political assassins and revolutionaries such as Guy Fawkes, Caligula, and John Wilkes Booth. Now this is DEFINITELY the bottom. Can’t get worse than THIS.
Little did I know.
Now we know that not only did everyone in Trump’s inner circle knew that this was going to be violent, but that the violence was designed in. We know that that the White House directly instigated the riot, that Trump knew many of his followers were armed, and that he took steps (directing the removal of the magnetometers at the rally on the Ellipse) to be sure they could keep their arms. He brought armed rioters to Washington, he wound them up, and he directed them at the Capitol, knowing the vice president was there.
And Trump wanted to lead this heavily armed paramilitary force, down Pennsylvania and into the, what? The Senate floor? What was he planning to do? Channel King Charles I and take a mob of Proud Boys to the Senate chamber to arrest Mike Pence? I wonder if they thought the President Pro Tem, Chuck Grassley, would do his job if the Senate President was out of the picture?
This is the perfect combination of Mark Burnett reality show staging and violent overthrow of our Constitutional government. Chief executives of democracies don’t show up uninvited at the legislature, with or without armed goons. England has had plenty of domestic disturbances, but the one they call the Civil War started when Charles I barged in with an armed squad to arrest five members. It’s that serious.
And Trump wanted to lead this violent attack so bad he threw a raging temper tantrum when his Secret Service detail refused to take him. We have to wonder what fantasies Trump was entertaining. The perfect reality tv scene: the make-believe president bursting open the Senate door, pointing dramatically and saying “arrest that man!” then dragging Chuck Grassley from the crowd and demanding “will you do it?” How far down the seniority list did he plan to go?
The most sturdy element of our democratic government once was the peaceful transition of power. People, right now, are rightly worried about the continuing effects of the Big Lie and the Republican Party assault on our election and vote counting process. But thanks to a sociopath in the Oval Office, the public face of that process has already been destroyed. Will the parties discover the will to rebuild our democracy?
And Trump’s benediction: Pence deserves it.
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This post written by Leon Reed.
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