Fun At The Capitol

So what happened in DC yesterday was horrific. It was something none of us could have ever imagined happening in America. It was an attack on democracy itself, like something you would expect to see in some country where coups and dictatorships are the norm, not in the country that’s supposed to be the shining beacon of democracy.
Yet as terrible as it was and as reprehensible as the people who stoked and perpetrated it are, I like when the world goes crazy. I feel just as outraged as you do, but I don’t let it affect my day. I love people, and I have nothing but hope for the human race, but I also understand that there is still that portion of the population who are just a nightmare and are maybe even irredeemable. It is a good thing to keep that in mind; it isn’t a large percentage of the country that invaded the Capitol. It was a bunch of insane cult members and conspiracy nuts, most of them either mentally ill or so grossly uninformed that they can’t function in normal society. Some of them are just plain stupid as well.
But whatever. I like anarchy. This wasn’t exactly anarchy in the sense that anarchists don’t usually fight and riot to keep the king on his throne, they do it to lead the king to the guillotine. These idiots can’t even get that right. It’s like going to the casino and rooting for the house.
It is turmoil though, and I’ll tell you why I like it. I like it because it means that things are breaking down. Why do I like that? Because I think that all of our institutions are so corrupted and so damaged that they are irreparable at this point. Everything needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the foundation up, and people aren’t willing to do that unless things get really scary and uncomfortable. Some republicans are actually defying and breaking with Trump, finally, after 4 years of horror. The Capitol Police Chief just resigned. Democrats are drawing up articles of impeachment and republicans are debating on removing him from power. Sometimes it takes horror to hit people over the head and enact change on the scale we need it to happen.
This is the culmination of years of abuse and obstruction by the GOP, and pandering to horrible fringe elements in their constituency. It took Trump to really drag them down, and also to bring the problems in this country into the light and expose the deplorables for the terrible people they are. If this is what it takes for people to act, then I’m all for it.
To be honest, the thing that really disgusts me most is how easily a mob of armed white people can storm the Capitol in the first place. I think that the cops were overwhelmed at that point, and they weren’t going to stop the rioters by the time they started heading for the Capitol, but it never should have gotten to that point. They should have dispersed the crowd much earlier, as it was marching through the streets of DC. If it was a BLM protest, it would have been gassed and fired upon before they even arrived. They never would have gotten that far, and even if it had, they would have been tear gassed and beaten at that point. The Capitol Police have aggressively and violently removed women, sick people, handicapped people, and any other group of people who protested in the Capitol Building in the past. They have dragged people from their wheelchairs. They have acted like thugs in the past, but yesterday they posed for selfies with terrorists.
We have a real problem with the police everywhere in this country. “Some of those that work forces are the same who burn crosses,” and it’s rampant. Racism runs through law enforcement in this country like a cancer. We all know that, but it is going to take even more evidence than yesterday to change it. George Floyd didn’t even change it. It got us talking, but nothing has really changed yet.
And that’s nothing new. Sandy Hook didn’t change gun laws, and neither did a bunch of other mass shootings. Centuries of racism and poverty and the horrors of war haven’t stopped any of those things. Four years of Trump and GOP treason and lawlessness didn’t make enough of a difference. Not until yesterday, when an angry mob spurred on by a traitorous president and his corrupt party smashed and grabbed their way through one of our most sacred buildings.
That’s why I like seeing mayhem and turmoil and anarchy, even if the people involved aren’t fighting the good fight. They are exposing everything wrong with who they are and what they stand for, and that’s going to have to be good enough.