As the one-year anniversary of the attempted coup against our government approaches next week, we reflect on how close we came to losing democracy.
The past year has provided a myriad of speculation, criticism, analysis, and even denial over how consequential January 6, 2021 was and is.
While we can chalk the day democracy nearly died solely up to blatant propaganda promulgated on Fox so-called “news” and other right-wing hate media, Q-Anon, or any other facet to the “big lie” ardent Donald Trump sycophants continue to fall for, one factor underscores it all.
Race.
As Jordan Green reported in Raw Story:
“Underneath the professions of patriotism and conspiracy-minded beliefs that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party are under the control of a sinister global cabal, the rioters’ composite profile reveals an insurrectionary base willing to resort to political violence to resist challenges to the dominant position of white Christendom and patriarchy in the United States.”
Vanderbilt University sociologist Amy Cooter explained:
“It’s not just being a Trump loyalist. A good majority of them feel like their version of America is under threat in a variety of ways. They’ve had those fears exacerbated by the pandemic. They were genuinely afraid of the protests after George Floyd’s killing. Whereas people of color, especially Black people, grow in size population-wise and grow in terms of political power, white people lash out through a variety of means, including gerrymandering. Some white people, to use a technical term, are freaked out. Trump becomes a symbol of resistance to all of these problems they perceive.”
The University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) found that of 1,070 Americans surveyed, 63 percent of “adamant insurrectionists” concur with the statement, “African American people or Hispanic people in our country will eventually have more rights than whites,” the basis for the the so-called “Great Replacement theory” pushed so vociferously on Fox.
About that, Amy Cooter said:
“I think Replacement theory is an overt neo-Nazi perspective where they are consciously concerned about being outnumbered by Black people. From folks I have observed for a long time, they don’t have that conscious belief. Many of them are genuinely oblivious to racism and oblivious to how much harder it is to obtain the American Dream if you’re a person of color.”
We mustn’t make the mistake in assuming another January 6-type attack could not happen again.
The warning signs are blinking red about last year’s attempt at a coup being merely practice.
Three retired U.S. generals–Paul Eaton, Antonio Taguba, and Steven Anderson–are warning another similar insurrection could occur after the 2024 presidential election.
This time with the military behind it.
Retired U.S. Army major general and a senior adviser to VoteVets, Paul Eaton, recently stated in an interview with NPR:
“The real question is does everybody understand who the duly elected president is? If that is not a clear-cut understanding, that can infect the rank and file or at any level in the U.S. military. We saw it when 124 retired generals and admirals signed a letter contesting the 2020 election.”
He added:
“I see it as low probability, high impact. You may have heard of the Transition Integrity Project that occurred about six months before the last election. We played four scenarios. And what we did not play is a U.S. military compromised—not to the degree that the United States is compromised today, as far as 39% of the Republican Party refusing to accept President Biden as president—but a compromise nonetheless. So, we advocate that that particular scenario needs to be addressed in a future war game held well in advance of 2024.”
Moreover, this year 45 Q Anon supporters are running for congressional seats in mid-term election.
Hoping to join them are fellow Trumpistas who participated in the January 6 sedition.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, threatened with hanging on that fateful day, recently downplayed the urgency, telling the Christian Broadcasting Network:
“I’m not going to allow the Democrats or the national media to use one tragic day in January to demean the intentions of 74 million people who stood with us in our cause. I’m not going to allow the Democrats to use one tragic day in January to distract attention from their failed agenda and the failed policies of the Biden Administration.”
So there it is.
Traitors who attempted a coup against their government are running for office. Some will surely win.
The former vice president–a target of their craven vengeance–brushes it off, likely because he plans on running for president and wishes to not alienate the people who wanted to kill him.
This is a crucial year for the ongoing “January 6th Committee” investigation.
If republicans successfully re-take the congressional majority, the Jan. 6 investigation and subsequent accountability is dead.
Then comes the 2024 presidential election.
Combine traitors against their government (some by then holding office) let off the hook, voter suppression, and a precarious economy still trying to regain footing after a global pandemic, and we’ve got a recipe for a successful overthrow of our government.
If that happens, it’s over.
Image credit: Progressive Charlestown
