We can’t start this week without at least a little mention about the debate this past week between the presidential candidates, Mr. Trump and Vice President Harris. To put it mildly, it was a shellacking by Harris.
Trump looked mad, arrogant, and old on that stage. The words spewing from his mouth were the same old tired tropes, which shows how little he pays attention to the real world around him. The fact that he believes a certain group of people are eating pets in a small midwestern city because he SAW IT ON TV just shows how easily he can be manipulated. It is just a sad state of affairs that this is the man so many Republicans are both afraid of, and believe should be the leader of their party. Says as much about his followers and sycophants as it says about him.
Harris looked young, fresh, and prepared for the task at hand. She had a harder road to travel being a woman and being a person of color. There was a fine line she had to walk to not come across as condescending, angry, or aggressive, all things any man on stage would not have to worry about. As anyone with common sense can attest, Harris walked that line with finesse. She lead him around the room so easily it was both hard scary and interesting to watch at the same time. Interesting to see how smart and prepared she is to step into the presidency from day one. Scary because it was demonstration in real time how Trump can be manipulated almost without batting an eye; it shows how any enemy of the United States could play him like a fiddle. Kudos to Harris for such a stellar performance and pushing her momentum even more. Plus a big congratulations on the endorsement from Taylor Swift, a force unto herself in generating a massive rush to the vote.org website.
Now back to the topic at hand, which does have a connection to the debate. Harris plainly mentioned Trump’s comment when he debated Biden in 2020. At the debate, Trump told the “proud boys” to “stand back and stand by” when pressured to denounce their support of him. Trump’s words where not a denouncement, but rather a direct order, in my opinion, not to do anything yet, but be ready in the future.
Fast forward from that debate to the January 6 insurrection, the attack on the Capitol in which all evidence to date shows Trump, other elected officials, and many private citizens of influence and money, incited. They propagated the first non-peaceful transfer of power ever in our history, including during the Civil War. Then Trump, like the sore loser and child he has shown us he can be, snubbed the inauguration.
What has bothered me for a while, and I’ve written about it in the past, is the number of people who seem willing to give their up their lives in support of this authoritarian wanna-be. Former staff, rather than turn state’s evidence, have gone to jail for him. Many have lied, and continue to lie, on his behalf. Rally goers have turned violent against other attendees and towards the press in attendance. Several former staff are touring the country working to build an army to support a violent overthrow of the government (at all levels), if and when Trump loses in November. Last, by not finally, those who participated in the January 6 insurrection.
All of us old enough to pay attention, remember the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A large group of Trump supporters, based on evidence provided so far, inspired and incited by Trump to do so, attacked the Capitol to prevent the count of electors to declare Biden the winner.
This all stemmed from Trump’s inability, for whatever reason, to process that 81 million people had just fired him from the presidency. In his mind, based on what Trump stated at the debate, since his people had told him that if he exceeded the 63 million votes he received in 2016, he would win, and since he received 74 million votes, there was no way he had lost. Trump totally doesn’t seem able to comprehend the 81 million people who voted for Biden is greater than 74 million he received, the stable genius that he is. Therefore, he and his top advisors, decided they needed to spread not only the Big Lie, but also take matters into their own hands to totally disrupt the electoral count and throw the election to House to decide, using the Constitution as a weapon to justify his Big Lie, which most likely would have overturned the will of the people and handed the presidency back to Trump.
What gives me pause at night and frightening scenarios in my imagination is who was in the crowd attacking the Capitol. It was what I might describe as typical Americans for lack of a better word. Trump followers who live their daily lives as most do, with no more, nor no less, power than those around them. People who, giving the benefit of the doubt, only watch Fox News, follow other extreme right wing media, or are easily hyped up and manipulated by those around them or by people in power. They provide less cause for worry to me because to me, if things are calmer, they are calmer going about their daily lives.
It is elected officials, especially at the local level, who have more power that worry me. It is unregulated militia, who want to pretend to realistically cos-play at being big men (and women) on campus. It is local law enforcement personnel, active and retired, who have experience and special knowledge to hurt people that worry me. It is the military personnel, active duty, discharged, or retired, with specific combat experience and knowledge, that worry me. That many of these people most likely own extreme firearms capable of killing many people in a short time, and most likely have access to heavier military gear, that worry me. They worry me because they seem to have lost all ability to think critically, have innate violent tendencies, are extreme Christo-fascists, are anarchists, truly believe chaos is the only way, or think they will be so much better off under authoritarian rule without truly understanding what authoritarian controls looks like or how it plays out. These are people who participated in the insurrection and may do so again during the electoral count in 2025.
Roughly 2,500 people stormed the Capitol that day, rioters intent on an insurrection and possible execution of elected officials (remember a gallows had been built to hang then Vice President Pence). That may not be seem like very many people when looking at the population of the nation, but look at the damage and harm this small group did, and has done, to our nation. They represented the extremists who live among us.
According to a survey earlier this year, around 20 percent of Americans believe the only way forward is violence. If truly one in five American’s believe violence is the only way forward to get the country back on track, that translates to around sixty-six million souls. There are thousands of unregulated militia in the U.S. ranging in size from around 20 to over a thousand members. One report stated just one militia Facebook group had over 140,000 followers. This is some scary shit to put it lightly.
With so many people seemingly okay and wanting violence, and although many of these people may not actively participate (one can hope) in actual violence, that is still a high number of people to worry about. What will these folks do, with an assumption most fall in the Trump camp, when Trump loses in November. Will we see violence of the highest magnitude? Will civil war break out? Will it be neighbor against neighbor, family against family, once again? Will history again repeat itself?
Personally, I’m anticipating there will be violence. These groups have had an additional four years of stewing anger and added to their perceived grievances. Many of the above groups have been actively staging actual military practices to hone skills.
Sadly, there seems little has been done to curtail their actions. As I think about the Trump years, about the propaganda of the last four years by the extreme right, and how Trump and many of the elected officials involved in the indicted acts with Trump have had to face little to no consequences so far. What does that mean for January 20, 2025, or the day after the November 5 election day?
Time, as always, will tell.
As I traditionally end, regardless of the above, we all still need to get out and vote. Vote in overwhelming numbers for Democrats up and down the ballot, dog catcher to state and local offices, to the presidency. Let’s show those who believe in violence that we don’t, that we won’t go back, that we want to go forward, that we want freedom.
Join me and we can, and will, win!
P.S.—As election day approaches, make sure to check your voter registration status. Republicans across the nation are purging voter rolls, kicking hundreds of thousands of people off voter rolls, thus hindering their legal right to vote. Check your status at vote.org at least weekly to make sure you have time to take any necessary action to have your vote counted should you no longer show as being registered.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 