Like many, I could scarcely pull myself away from the TV yesterday as events unfolded on Capitol Hill. What a relief afterward, when Democrats and Republicans finally had reason to unite in solidarity, against domestic hatreds which few present had witnessed up close till now. Indeed, the whole episode made me recall the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, since the latter incident opened my eyes to the reality of our cultural struggles. And while I've never protested in the streets, there have still been occasions when I personally felt the burn of cultural hate.
At the very least in Washington, yesterday ended with second thoughts all around regarding the Electoral College challenge. For now, stability has returned and streets were quiet this morning. So we can all breathe a sigh of relief, right?
If only it were possible to know for certain. As John Ashmore notes,
It's easy to claim this is the work of a lunatic fringe, but that ignores two crucial points.
He further elaborates that while Trump's actions and words encouraged the insurrection, the president was hardly alone in doing so. Unfortunately, others in the "highest echelons" have supported Trump's fantasies as well. Ashmore continues:
...this mob does represent a vibrant, virulent strain of American political opinion. Just look at surveys that show one in five voters there supporting the storming of the capitol - a figure that rises to 45% among Republicans.
Part of what prompted this post, are some of the relevant flags. Over Christmas for example, a few folks here finally replaced their Trump flags with American flags. Nevertheless, as the above CapX article states:
If anyone thinks these people are 'patriots', just remember that they replaced the American flag on the Capitol with a Trump one.
Given the media's propensity to highlight the outlandish, I'm surprised that an obscene F*&# Biden flag, (mentioned in my previous post) did not get more attention. I caught a brief glance of it as someone in the crowd carried it through the Capitol. And a local sheriff who had just been elected as a congressman, even tried to calm the rioters down at one point. He must have been quite startled - as someone who openly backed Trump and his efforts to remain in office - to witness firsthand the effect Trump actually had on certain 'patriots'. What else might set them off in the days ahead?
Suffice to say that people like me don't always feel safe in this country. When I was younger, I used to imagine moving to a state or area where fewer domestic threats existed, but finally realized this is an imaginary notion. So other than the minuscule efforts of this blog, when it comes to cultural struggles, right now I can do little more than pray for peace, the safety of our next president, and for positive change. Perhaps after this close encounter with the hatred of some protesters, politicians of all stripes might finally be less tempted to play with fire, just to gain temporary political advantages.
In the meantime, given an unexpected peace between Democrats and Republicans this morning, I wondered about the possibility of improved moods on the part of nearby neighbors. So I stepped out on the front porch and furtively glanced next door. Nope, the obscene flag is still there.
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