Like millions of others on January 6, 2021, I sat riveted to my TV watching something I never imagined I would see.
I sat there in disbelief as I witnessed thousands of Trump enthusiasts metamorphose from self-described “patriotic” rally attendees, to “peaceful” marchers, and then to violent rioters.
I watched as a Fox News reporter asked a marcher if she was disappointed that people were breaking into the capitol building, only for her to deny that it was happening and dismissing it as “fake news.” But it was happening and it wasn’t fake news.
I watched it all — live as it was happening – with a fuming emotional mix of anger, deep sadness, and disgust.
I thought: These people, these so-called ”patriots,” are no better than the lawless ANTIFA and Anarchist thugs that attacked the Mork O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and other public buildings and wrought destruction under the cover of “peaceful” BLM protests in my hometown of Portland, Oregon in the summer of 2020.
These “patriots” were attacking a building I love. Not only because what it represents to me as an American, but because of the awestruck hours I have spent within its walls and under its dome as a tourist, as a guest of C-SPAN, as an amateur lobbyist, and as an intern with the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
But of course, despite all performative flag-waving, these were not patriots at all.
Patriots do not break windows and bash in doors. Patriots do not violently vandalize our nation’s sacred institutions. Patriots do not attack security and law enforcement officers. Patriots do not illegally trespass or break in and enter. Patriots do not commit acts of violence and destruction while rioting, and wearing a red, white, and blue t-shirt and truckers’ hat does not make you one.
I yelled at my television for the (supposed) leader of our nation – the President of the United States – to urgently get on the air with a strong and no-nonsense statement condemning the criminal acts the world was watching and to call for it to immediately cease and desist! Diffuse and pacify this! Instead, we got a far-too delayed response from Donald Trump, in the form of a weak statement wrapped in nonsense.
This is no leader, I was reminded.
It was an outrageous and disgusting miscarriage of justice when after the violence and destruction not-so-peaceful protesters gifted cities like Portland, Minneapolis, and others, they were simply booked, immediately released (if they were arrested at all), with charges dropped by liberal soft on crime District Attorneys. Those rioters deserved to be held accountable for their violent attacks and the harm done to people (police) and property, to the fullest extent permitted under the law. They weren’t.
Likewise, the rioters at the United States Capitol on January 6 deserved the same thing – punishment with the full weight of penalty allowed for their crimes. Tragically, with his pardon of nearly 1,500 of those law-breaking, riotous “patriots” accountability is again denied by same feckless President that could not bring himself to demand a stop to the attack on the capitol four years ago. And in so doing Donald J. Trumps cements for history a soft on crime legacy…alongside those liberal, George Soros-backed D.A.s.
Juggling Squirrel 