From 1765 to 1783, Americans took up arms to gain their independence from the British crown and become a free and independent nation. They went to war once again from 1860 to 1865, this time with each other, to preserve the Union and American democracy. There have been other times when we’ve ‘gone to war’ to preserve freedom and democracy.
But, on January 6, 2021, a large crowd of Americans went to war to destroy that democracy. And, to add insult to injury, since that infamous day a large number of Americans have been downplaying, denying, or supporting this act of insurrection, some even going so far as to call it a ‘peaceful demonstration,’ or a ‘legitimate expression of grievances.’
Give me a break!
Of the more than 2,000-people who breached the capitol building on January 6, a large number carried zip ties and bear spray. About six times that many were outside on the capitol grounds and in addition to the bear spray, they used flag poles to beat police guards, broke windows, and in tried to take police weapons and in cone case tried to crush a capitol policeman in a door. That is neither peaceful nor legal behavior. Who takes zip ties and bear spray to a peaceful demonstration. Oh, and how about the stacked military-like movements of groups in uniform who were coordinating via handheld radios?
I’m no lawyer or Constitutional specialist, but I know violent behavior when I watch several hours of it live on my TV screen.
This unholy tendency that some people have of resorting to the bullet to express their political beliefs and desires rather than the ballot has infected my native land from the beginning. There was the Whiskey Rebellion in the late 1700s when Pennsylvania farmers turned violent in protest against high taxes on whiskey. Then, there was the Business Plot, also known as the Wall street Putsch, in 1933, when a cabal of wealthy investors and bankers planned to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt and replace him with a retired US Marine general named Smedley Butler.
Fortunately, Butler refused to violate his officer’s oath to support and defend the Constitution, and he turned the plotters in. What was the motive behind this blatant coup plot? These uber wealthy men were angry that FDR eliminated the gold standard which caused them to think that the American dollar not backed by gold would be inflated and threaten their fortunes.
While the congress of the time investigated the plot and acknowledged that it was real not one of the names of the wealthy men allegedly behind it was ever publicized, nor were any of them ever charged for this crime. We might never know why this is the case, but it does so smack of the way some politicians and media outlets are trying to whitewash the events of January 6. It’s possible that FDR made a deal to grant clemency to the plotters in exchange for support from right-wingers in Congress for his New Deal programs. I hope and pray that that attitude no longer exists.
For one thing, the far right in the US Congress of today doesn’t seem to be willing to compromise on anything, and for another, in the ninety-plus years since the Business Plot, the population of people willing to forego the ballot for the bullet to get their way seems to have increased exponentially and is no longer confined to just the super-rich.
We have weathered many storms in our rocky voyage toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and a country that lives by the principles of ‘liberty and justice for all.’ If we don’t go back to legitimate use of the ballot over the bullet to advance our political desires, the ship of state could very well founder.
The world is watching. | NWI
