I don’t normally write about politics, but the events of Wednesday’s insurrection in the Capital leave me with a pretty dire desire to vent, and I might as well take advantage of the platform I have here to do so.
What happened Wednesday isn’t really surprising at all if you’ve been following current events of the last 4 years. Anyone with half a brain could see that Trump was an immature, inane, lying, narcissist; the very last person one should appoint to Leader of the Free World. Anyone with a passing knowledge of world history could have told you he had all the marks of a Fascist dictator. No one who has been paying attention these last 4 years is truly surprised that Trump ultimately used his power to almost bring down our Democracy and turn it against the very people who supported him these last few years.
The fact that someone as stupid, selfish, and vile as Trump doesn’t shock me at all either. There have been and always will be evil people in the world, and he is certainly one. And spare me your false equivalency—there is absolutely no comparison to other politicians of either party. Even the most seedy and corrupt career politician you can think of pales in comparison to what we have witnessed from Trump during his campaign and administration. Whether he is mocking the disabled, insulting Veterans, sexually harassing women, separating children from their parents, committing tax fraud, engaging in quid pro quo with foreign governments to gather intelligence on the family members of political opponents for his smear campaigns, attempting to sabotage the operations of the post office in order to interfere with mail-in voting during the election, lying to the American people about a deadly pandemic and then actively trying to prevent people from getting tested so that the numbers would look better, leveraging the Presidency to increase profits for his personal businesses, interfering in Department of Justice investigations, refusing to denounce white supremacy groups, lying under oath (and everywhere else he goes…to everyone…all the time…about everything), or inciting an angry mob to storm the Capital Building, Trump is empirically, indisputably, The Worst.
What upsets me greatly is the sheer number of people who have willingly turned a blind eye to all this and enabled him to take up the highest office in the land, despite how obviously backwards he is as a human being and a leader of men.
But then once I got over how many people who are either foolish enough, or ill-informed enough, or sadistic enough, or delusional enough to have voted for Trump…What’s been shocking and disgusting me most these last 4 years are all the public servants in Washington who should surely know better, people I thought to be of good conscience, who have been enabling him every step of the way. Despite everything he has done, the Republican contingent in Washington have rendered him nearly invincible. He has escaped lawsuits and impeachment alike, despite the proverbial blood on his hands. There are checks and balances built into our system of government to prevent the President abusing his/her power, not to mention countless opportunities for the other people in power in Washington to do the right thing, and they have simply chosen not to over and over again. They had enough dirt on Trump to have impeached him years ago, in addition to the reprehensible behavior he exhibits on a regular basis. Regardless of the atrocities committed against civilians, Democracy, and the Country, the Republican party that nominated Trump have held their noses and found a way around it every time—presumably because they knew if they kept him in office their agenda and policies would get pushed through. But at what cost?
My disgust and my blame falls squarely on the shoulders of every Republican Congressman, Senator, or Administrator in Washington these past 4 years who had a responsibility to their Country and their conscience to speak out against Trump and do everything in their power to prevent him from abusing his, but who chose to remain silent and enable him to get where he is today. Each and every one of them is a coward and an accomplice. I have several friends who are registered Republicans or who identify as Conservatives who I respect greatly because they are good people of good conscience who do good in the world (and do not now—or ever have—supported Trump), and those people still have my respect. I have lost all respect for the Republican party that helped Trump take to office, because the majority in Washington have failed to show one scrap of integrity these last 4 years. There are a few who spoke out, including the late John McCain, who still have my respect for being able to acknowledge their loyalty to the ideals of their party but their unwillingness to align themselves with someone as morally reprehensible as Trump. Even that modicum of respect is limited to those who spoke out prior to 2020. The ones who waited until only recently to speak up are opportunists who merely saw the writing on the wall, saw Trump was likely to lose his reelection, and wanted to reestablish their street-cred to save their careers moving forward. To all of these I grant a hearty FUCK YOU. You had a wealth of opportunities before to do the right thing and you chose to align yourself with the political anti-Christ. You’re fooling no one.
While I was glad to see everyone come together in the end to pass the electoral college votes and rubber-stamp Biden’s victory, it angers me that it was only when these politicians’ own lives were in danger that they finally saw how bad the situation had become. It should have bothered them long before it affected them personally.
This brings to mind the popular quote from Edmund Burke. I’ve heard it before as have we all, and it was just another trite aphorism, but not anymore. These last 4 years have brought the words home in a way I’m not likely to ever forget, and neither should you. We should all take that away from the past 4 years if absolutely nothing else.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Remember my last post about finding your own power? Ironic that I was espousing villains’ ability to wield theirs as a virtue. But no, really—people need to recognize the power they have and USE. IT.
For GOOD.
mandymelodies.com 
Tell them babe.