Thoughts After an Attempted Coup

On January 6, 2021, both Houses of Congress were to meet to count the electoral college votes, completing our country's head-scratchingly bizarre electoral process. I say "head-scratchingly bizarre" because there are multiple points during the process in which the public's preference can be distorted or even nullified. Yesterday was one of those points. Twelve Republican Senators went into the meeting vowing to object to the counted electoral votes on the grounds of widespread election irregularities and/or conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud. If enough Senators had agreed to do the same, then the electoral college votes--already a distortion of the national popular vote--would have been disregarded.

As the proceedings began, American citizens who believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from trumpet breached the United States Capitol building and stormed the halls of Congress. Representatives and Senators hid in secure locations until the Capitol was secured. Late in the evening, the House and Senate continued with the proceedings. Six of the twelve Senators who had vowed to reject the electoral college results spoke, saying that they would recant their previous positions given What Had Happened in the Capitol That Day.

Now, What Had Happened in the Capitol That Day had nothing to do with what the dissenting Senators were calling into question--the legitimacy of the voting process and/or the electoral process in the 2020 election. Consequently, it had absolutely no bearing on the perception of the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The six Senators who recanted thus effectively admitted that they didn't actually believe the election was illegitimate or sufficiently irregular. It was all a ruse to keep trumpet in power and--though this may have not been the express aim--to kill democracy in the United States.

In a strange way, I actually almost hold a bit more respect for the six Senators who did not change their minds despite What Had Happened in the Capitol That Day. They were not swayed by occurrences which were orthogonal to their main arguments. Of course, their steadfastness does not reveal whether they truly believe their own claims of irregularities and fraudulence.

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People wearing "Make America Great Again" hats barrelled past law enforcement while carrying Confederate flags into the United States Capitol building.

Okay. There is so much cognitive dissonance there.

The MAGA crowd and the Blue Lives Matter crowd tend to overlap quite a bit. But in this case, they disregarded law enforcement.

What does "Make America Great Again" mean when you carry a flag representing a distinct sovereign nation that no longer exists?

Explain how a Confederate flag relates to claims about a stolen American--and therefore foreign--election.

What "America" are you fighting for?

That America doesn't exist. I don't think that America ever existed. You cannot make it great "again".

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terrorism

noun

the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

[courtesy of a Google search]

Unlawful: Breaking into the United States Capitol.

Use of violence: Trashing the Capitol.

Use of intimidation: Leaving a note in Nancy Pelosi's office saying, "WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN". Graffiti reading, "MURDER THE MEDIA" on an exterior wall.

Against civilians: Are Representatives and Senators considered "civilians"? Let's say yes, because I think the definition is distinguishing between civilians and soldiers. Either way, this isn't a necessary condition to be considered "terrorism"--it is for emphasis ("especially").

Pursuit of political aims: Objective was to stop the certification of an election to keep trumpet in office.

Yep, it checks out.

Does the fact that Confederate flags were carried in mean it was an attack by a foreign power? Would people be more likely to call it "terrorism" then?