When Black Lives Matter protests erupted across the nation, they were met with violence. When pro-Trump protesters stormed the U.S Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, where members of Congress were proceeding with the routine certification of the Electoral College, they breached the capitol and roamed free.
The same man that denounced participants of the Black Lives Matter protests as “thugs” expressed love for those who broke into the capitol, calling them “special” for their efforts to undermine a legal election.
Watching the news last night was reminiscent of an opening scene to a dystopian movie: panicking reporters, politicians being moved to secure locations, and a flooding of flags that are supposed to represent freedom and liberty turned into symbols of hatred on the Capitol steps.
Encouraged by the President of the United States to protest outside the Capitol, protesters in Trump attire forced the House floor into a lockdown. Tear gas had to be deployed in the rotunda.
How is it that the primarily peaceful protests of the summer were met with more swiftness and force than an attempted coup?
Why is looting and rioting conflated with the BLM movement, but right-wing domestic terrorists are seen as a “select few”?
A tweet from Donald Trump Jr. comes to mind: “70 million pissed off republicans and not one city burned to the ground.”
Really?
As mobs stormed the Capitol, the President tweeted that Mike Pence “didn’t have the courage” to stop the formalizing of Joe Biden’s victory- a legal process Mike Pence is constitutionally bound to carry out, despite Trump’s claims.
Trump then tweeted a simple “Stay Peaceful!” to the protestors- despite the ongoing violence and threat toward Congress members (including those of his own party).
Remember when peaceful protestors were beaten and teargassed this summer? Where are those officers now?
In true fashion, Trump attempted to absolve himself from guilt despite negligible calls for “calm.” No press conference, no barrage of tweets demonizing the violence until the damage was already done. He wanted this chaos.
This is a clear display of disrespect for democracy. Most Republicans demonized a movement for racial equality, touting the “restraint” of Republicans, the “party of Law and Order” (according to Trump), and now almost all of them remain complicit as Trump supporters ravage a symbol of liberty and democracy.
This is the same party that preaches “facts over feelings.” But where are the facts in this case? Believing in election fraud with zero evidence, just because Trump told them to?
Members of the party that “loves America” are now committing egregious acts of violence because of fraudulent claims of a failed election.
To be fair, the protestors were not necessarily indicative of the party as a whole. But high-ranking Republican officials, like Sen. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, validating election fraud conspiracies certainly did not aid the party’s supposed morals.
Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party into a cult of hypocrisy. “A Party of Law and Order” that doesn’t respect free and fair elections if their candidate loses. “A Party of Law and Order” that refuses to take accountability for insurrection. “A Party of Law and Order” that endangers the members of Congress trying to carry out their constitutional duty to carry out the certification of the election.
Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. It’s time for Trump supporters to lay down their flags and respect the results of the election and rebuild the Republican Party. This country can’t stand any more.