I want to acknowledge the insanity that has been ravaging the United States of America these past few days. And the best way to do it is to just...write. It's what I do. I don't know that this warrants a few paragraphs or a post on its own. I want to start by saying, coming from my vantage point as a political scientist and as a first generation immigrant myself, it was not at all surprising. I saw this coming. It was why I tweeted that if you are surprised, then you have not been paying attention.
Those of us who study coups, uprisings, political movements, demagogues, conflicts and political unrest had continually cautioned, whether it was on Twitter or elsewhere, that the actions of the 45th U.S. president since the elections were dangerous. We predicted this. We freaking warned you. But we were termed dramatic, alarmists, despite the actual evidence showing otherwise. And here we are. Exactly one week ago, rioters, insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol— the actual shrine of American democracy. These violent thugs actually took to the Capitol to subvert a free and fair election and overthrow the government. They staged an insurrection, set up gallows and a noose, took the confederate flag to the Capitol (something that had never been that close), stormed the Capitol and raided it. These fools actually sat on the Senate President's seat, put their feet up on the Speaker's desk, and ransacked congressional offices.
First, please let the audacity of these [mostly] white men and especially white women who dared to think they could overthrow the government and get away with it sink in. They actually just thought they would attempt a coup and walk away like it was just another Wednesday. They actually went with the intention of capturing Congresspeople and "hanging" the Vice President. The president then went on TV to tell these people he "loved" them, that they are "very special". The same man who said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" about black protesters last summer. The man who, referring to peaceful protesters against racial injustice, called them "thugs", "agitators", "looters".
I will say that it was not as jarring as I would have thought. Most Americans though, were flabbergasted. I don't blame them. I mean; when we have U.S. Congressmen having to call their families to tell them they love them; when we have a Congressman who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan being more afraid at the U.S. capitol than he was in war torn nations, then perhaps we need to reexamine our democratic experiment in America.
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| The idiocy ended up being the worst revolution ever. |
People were shocked, devastated, angry, and there were lots of "this is not who we are. This is not America".
Except it is exactly America.
I am sorry all of this is happening and I am still very worried about the near future. But let this be a lesson to America and other so-called democracies that U.S. institutions are very very fragile and contrary to what lots of Americans might think, we are not that special. We are not that exceptional. Yes, laws and institutions are good, but in the end when bad actors are in positions of power and they are normalized, the consequences are dire. For me, what I am most angry about as my tweet showed was seeing the black maintenance staff and custodians clean up after those idiotic fools and thugs who broke through the Capitol. I am angry that yet again, black folks are bearing the brunt of white privilege. This is why heads must roll. It is why we must demand accountability and there must be consequences for everyone including the lawmakers who swore to uphold the law only to turn around to incite a riot against our most sacred institutions.
As with most things America, too many people just want to "heal", "unite", "move on". But how do you truly move on without consequences? How do you unite with actual, literal white supremacists whose very existence is predicated on the fact that they think the white race is supreme? Explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old. I always say, even with his most generous mercy Christ seeks repentance. He IS Christ and even he demands repentance before reconciliation. We are just human and you want us to let go and move on even though this same man threatened to shoot BLM protesters who dared protest unjust murders of black bodies?
My big fear right now is that most attempted coups are almost always followed (if not soon, eventually) by successful ones. That's what the data says. It is why there must be a demonstrable effort that shows that such a thing is truly not welcome in America.
I am most heartbroken by the so-called Christians and evangelicals, who for so long, continued to enable this monstrosity of an administration. They have continued to propagate idolatry and for some reason, the republican party (for all its ills towards and constant oppression of black folks, immigrants, the poor) is ostensibly synonymous with the Christian party. This is despite the fact that they chase power, wealth, greed, hate...and quite literally everything God hates. I am not saying Democrats are the better party but at the very least those ones don't go around using the name of God with every fifth word and then turning away from the same God.
Disgusting.
If you have ignored the fact of the matter—that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. won the 2020 elections —because of your idolatry, racism, bigotry, and pure stupidity, you are insane. In the words of Beth Moore, what is Right or Left cannot be more important to Christians that what Jesus deems right or wrong. If Donald Trump is more important to you than the gospel and truth of Jesus or more important than loving your neighbor (even if that neighbor is black, gay, transgender, immigrant), then you are part of the problem. If you continue to lie because of your support of a man who, because of money, power, ego, narcissism, filth, corruption, has decided to ruin our country, you are NOT of God. If no one has told you point blank, I am here to tell you.
There you have it: America in the 2020s. What a wild ride.
Even though I don't want to be, my faith in God empowers me to be hopeful despite all this. It is how I know we will be okay. But it is also how I know we must always be active citizens. Arrest those idiots or not, there are plenty of them and they won't just disappear just because their cult leader is no longer president. Our own light must shine so brightly that their darkness disappears. It's how we win this: with truth, light, and believe it or not [actionable] love.
Love,
I
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