Some Thoughts on Wednesday's Rioting

Why weren't the insurrectionists immediately arrested? Why won't every single one of them be prosecuted? Is the nation going to be held with knives at its throat for the next four years, out of fear of arousing more violence from the extreme right? 

Everyone who can be identified as participating in Trump's insurrection or inciting it, the Capitol police who turned their back on what was happening, perhaps even some Senators and Representatives, along with the President, must face justice. OTHERWISE THEY WILL HAVE WON. 

If they want "combat" as Rudy puts it, let them have it. We have the intelligence as to “who, what, when and where” from video, internet and telephone monitoring, and now, the new DOJ must act on it with weapons that are not for show, but loaded and ready to fire.  “Lock and load one round - ball ammunition,” is a firing range command.  Today, we are not on the firing range.  We are in combat.   We should be locking and loading for real if necessary, not cowering out of fear of what Trump’s supporters might do.

And the complicity of the Capitol Police cannot be ignored.  Trump has made law enforcement people throughout the country believe he is one with them, a ‘law and order’ president.  That is why they treated the insurrectionists with kid gloves.  And law enforcement agencies throughout the nation must be examined to see how deeply the Trumpian cancer has involved them. 

It is clear that Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, along with the President, should be prosecuted.  If I lived in Texas or Missouri, I would be active in recall movements today for both Senators.  Inciting a deadly riot and violating the Capitol building are crimes. And does Lindsey Graham, after almost four years of being an enabler, get off the hook by saying "enough is enough."?   And similar last-minute conversions from other Trump enablers should not be taken seriously. 

I watched Fox last night.  These people are diseased.  I heard Congressman Matt Gaetz say the only reason the Democrats were considering impeachment was to hold their Party together, which he claimed is about to fall apart. He looked to Jim Jordan as a savior.  At a minimum, these people should be disowned by the national and local Republican Parties.  Let those that don’t end up in prisons run as "Insurrectionists."  

If this doesn’t happen, if prosecution of Senators Hawley and Cruz, and the insurrection leaders in the House, and of course, the President, the inciters of the criminal rioting, does not proceed, THEY WILL HAVE WON. There must not be compromise with them.  Repeated compromises with Southern slave-holding States did not prevent the Civil War from eventually occurring.  To prevent another one, insurrection must be nipped in the bud, and that means arrest and prosecution without fear of any reaction by Trump’s seditious base.  

As with cancer, the time for real "healing" can only start once the malignacy is removed.   

JL

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As some of you may know, I occasionally comment on Professor Heather Cox Richardson's daily newsletter, "A Letter from an American."  Here is what I posted there this morning (Jan. 10).

There are no precedents in American history for our descent into third world nation status. Even the Civil War did not leave us so crippled. We have become what Trump maliciously accused some African nations of being. With the bigotry, ignorance and hatred of millions of American voters and elected officials still fueling support for our insurrectionist President, a solution will be hard to come by. Even Alan Dershowitz claims that the soon-to-be ex-president's First Amendment rights must be protected. What for? So he can go into movie theatres and shout "Fire"?