Attempted Coup, One Year Later
Today is the anniversary of an attempted coup against the U.S. government and its Constitution. On Jan. 6, 2021 a mob of thousands of people, some of them armed, swarmed the U.S. Capitol building with the intent of disrupting a vote to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Members of the mob fought with police, killing one and injuring over 100 officers. Members of the House and Senate were either evacuated from the building or barricaded themselves behind cover, in fear for their lives. This is the first time ever in the history of the United States that an attack penetrated the Capitol.
What drove the coup attempt was the lie repeated daily for weeks by then-President Donald Trump, and amplified by propaganda outlets such as the Fox News Network, that Trump rightfully won the 2020 election. In fact President Joe Biden won, by more than 7 million popular votes and an Electoral College vote of 306 to 232. Trump and allied propagandists have steadily claimed, with zero actual evidence, that Biden's margin of victory is due to widespread vote fraud.
"So what. The coup was defeated," some might say. "It was only a few thousand people. Out of, what, 330 million in the U.S.?" The thing is, the thousands of rioters who mobbed the Capitol are only a tiny fraction of an ongoing coup that's been happening in plain sight. Consider these facts:
So while the riotous coup one year ago today failed, there has been an ongoing coup continuing in plain sight. If Joe Biden or another Democrat elected in 2024, there could be a full scale insurrection. By then the political right will have had 4 years, not just 8 weeks, to feed its own lies and plan its next attack.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/169316.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
What drove the coup attempt was the lie repeated daily for weeks by then-President Donald Trump, and amplified by propaganda outlets such as the Fox News Network, that Trump rightfully won the 2020 election. In fact President Joe Biden won, by more than 7 million popular votes and an Electoral College vote of 306 to 232. Trump and allied propagandists have steadily claimed, with zero actual evidence, that Biden's margin of victory is due to widespread vote fraud.
"So what. The coup was defeated," some might say. "It was only a few thousand people. Out of, what, 330 million in the U.S.?" The thing is, the thousands of rioters who mobbed the Capitol are only a tiny fraction of an ongoing coup that's been happening in plain sight. Consider these facts:
- On January 6, 2020, after the storming of the Capitol whipped up by the totally fake argument of widespread vote fraud, still several senators and over 100 representatives voted against accepting the Electoral College tallies. Their attempts to nullify the fair vote were also supported by the governors of 20 states. When the violent insurrection failed, these political leaders attempted a palace coup by using the processes of the government against itself.
- It's not just a few thousand rioters or a few hundred politicians. Still today, a year later, 75% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters believe Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election. (Example source: CNN.com article, 10 Dec 2021)
- Numerous states have enacted voting restriction laws. Even though every legal argument that widespread vote fraud occurred has been debunked and rejected by courts, politicians still take it as an article of faith to clamp down on voting rights. Of course, these clampdowns are proven not to impact voting fraud- because there is hardly any to start with- but do suppress the turnout of ethnic minorities and the poor and working classes.
So while the riotous coup one year ago today failed, there has been an ongoing coup continuing in plain sight. If Joe Biden or another Democrat elected in 2024, there could be a full scale insurrection. By then the political right will have had 4 years, not just 8 weeks, to feed its own lies and plan its next attack.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/169316.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]