Charge Them All

Like many of you, the images of the January 6th raid on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. continue to stir me with anger. Over the last week we’ve seen headlines announcing that many of the photographed deplorables have been identified by the FBI and arrested, from the man wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweater, to the so-called QAnon Shaman. But this isn’t good enough. The rioters have been fed a steady diet of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and rage for four years by Donald Trump and his enablers, and it does not appear that there will be any consequences for the elected representatives, television personalities, and social media companies who empowered the violent mob. Trumpism and all the delusion it stands for will continue to proliferate without meaningful legal consequences for those who facilitated tyranny. What we witnessed was an attack on liberal democracy itself, and every individual who had a role in the insurrection should be arrested.

One of the many reasons why George W. Bush’s War on Drugs was a spectacular failure was because it cracked down on street-level drug dealers and people suffering from addiction issues rather than arresting those at the top of the drug chain. Similarly, it would be a colossal failure if the only people arrested for the abhorrent events of January 6th are who those who consumed the madness and not those who created it. It is apparent that the majority of those who entered the Capitol genuinely believed that they were the good guys. They believed that they had to help Trump rescue their country. Listen to their blood curdling screams as they yell at police officers that they are blocking them from “saving our country.” Look at the crazed anguish in their eyes as they push against the doors of the Speaker’s Lobby, even as guns are pointed in their direction. If you genuinely believed that a cabal of pedophile cannibals stole an election at the bidding of China, wouldn’t you do everything you could to protect your country? Neo-Nazi and Confederate flag waving cretins aside, the vast majority of these rioters have been duped and conned by right-wing media and elected representatives to do the biddings of a mad man. Within an eight-year span, Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who died attempting to breach the Speaker’s Lobby, went from voting for Barack Obama to believing that his vice-president was a Chinese puppet pedophile-ring master intent on destroying the United States. This incredible transformation was only possible because of an echo-chamber of lies that proliferated unfiltered on social media and was winked at by elected Republicans. As a sample of the rabble-rousing lies that consumed the minds of the insurrectionists, read the following statements made by elected Republicans and members of the media in the days leading to the attempted coup:

·      Nov. 9 – Sen. Lindsey Graham: We win because of our ideas; we lose because they cheat us.

·      Nov. 23 – Tucker Carlson: They rigged the election in front of all of us, and nobody did anything about it.

·      Dec. 2 – Lou Dobbs: The battle for the White House is now a full-fledged struggle for the survival of this constitutional republic.

·      Dec. 13 – Steve Hilton: We need to fight back. We need to strike at the heart of their power. We need to show that the next revolution is just getting started.

·      Dec 16 – Laura Ingraham: Will we stand up for freedom, as Samuel Adams and his fellow patriots did?

·      Dec. 19 – Rep. Matt Gaetz: It is time to stand and fight. The swamp isn’t truly drained until we’ve nailed the hides of the alligators to the wall!

·      Dec. 19 – Rep. Andy Biggs: We’re going to keep fighting, and I implore you to keep fighting too.

·      Dec. 21 – Rep. Madison Cawthorn: Call your congressman and feel free to lightly threaten them that if you don’t start supporting election integrity, I’m coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you.

·      Jan. 1 – Rep. Louie Gohmert: You’ve gotta go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.

·      Jan. 2 – Judge Jeanine Pirro: General George Washington’s soldiers were freezing cold, fighting for independence against tyranny, domination, and control. It was their moment to stand up and fight for freedom. To many, January 6th is such a moment.

·      Jan. 2 – Peter Navarro: Get it right - they stole it. We need to take it back for the people.

·      Jan. 2 – Sen. Ted Cruz: We will not go quietly into the night. We will defend liberty!

·      Jan. 3 – Mark Levin: If we don’t fight on January 6th on the floor of the Senate and the House, that is the Joint Meeting of Congress, then we’re done. It’s time for everybody to stand up and be heard.

·      Jan. 3 – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: We have to fight this out for the American people.

·      Jan. 4 – Rep. Chuck Fleischmann: It’s time for conservatives to show that backbone.

·      Jan. 4 – Kayleigh McEnany: Republicans, grow a backbone and fight.

·      Jan. 4 – Sen. Josh Hawley: This is about taking a stand where you can take a stand.

·      Jan. 4 – President Donald Trump: They’re not taking this White House. We’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now.

·      Jan. 5 – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: This is our 1776 moment.

·      Jan. 6 – Katrina Pierson: We the people are in control of the United States and we will take our rights back.

·      Jan. 6 – Kimberly Guilfoyle: Liberty loving patriots! We will not let them steal this election!

·      Jan. 6 – Lara Trump: We are in this fight until the end, we are gonna take our country back.

·      Jan. 6 – Eric Trump: We need to march on the Capitol today and we need to stand up for this country

·      Jan. 6 – Rep. Mo Brooks: Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass

·      Jan. 6 – Rudy Giuliani: Let’s have trial by combat!

·      Jan. 6 – Donald Trump Jr.: If you’re gonna be the zero and not the hero, we’re coming for you. And we’re going to have a good time doing it. Don’t be suppressed! Don’t be put in your corner!

·      Jan. 6 – President Donald Trump: we’re going to the Capitol. You’ll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength. And we’re going to have to fight much harder. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.

These last eight statements were delivered directly to an enraged mob before the attack on the Capitol began. None of the violence would have happened if not for these individuals, and five people are now dead because of their incitement. These words are especially dangerous in the minds of those susceptible to conspiracy theories and brainwashing, who became the foot soldiers for a movement grounded in derangement. And like the War on Drugs, it is likely that only the foot soldiers will face any legal consequences. Donald Trump will slink off to Mar-a-Lago. Cruz and Hawley will continue to sit in the Senate, and will likely both seek the Republican nomination for the 2024 election. Carlson, Ingraham, and Pirro will not lose their jobs, but may lose viewers if the federal prisons don’t allow the insurrectionists to watch Fox News. The Twitter, YouTube/Google, and Facebook executives who allowed dangerous QAnon conspiracy theories to fester on their platforms for years will continue to see their stock prices rise.

147 House and Senate Republicans (a majority of House republicans) voted against certifying Biden’s election, even after their workplace had been made into a murder scene. I hold these politicians in special contempt for the attack on liberal democracy, because instead of supporting a peaceful transition of power, they knowingly decided to empower domestic terrorists. Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, products of Harvard Law and Yale Law respectively and both former SCOTUS clerks, were the primary cheerleaders of tyranny who gave speeches to the media casting doubt on Joe Biden’s election in the days leading up to the violence. Hawley was photographed greeting the rioters earlier in the day, fist raised in the air. Cruz and Hawley, trained with America’s most prestigious legal education, knew exactly what they were doing by casting doubt on a democratic election and feeding conspiracy theories to an audience of susceptible MAGA maniacs. They need to be held responsible for the destruction they caused not just to the Capitol, but to the project of liberal democracy itself. Charge them all.