We finally have a test of President Trump’s claim that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?”
After Trump sparked a riot on Wednesday in Washington, DC, and four people were killed, I went to the Trump supporters I corresponded with in the past to get their opinion.
Everyone was making impressions of Tammy Wynette, next to her man.
“How do I feel about Trump?” asked my friend by mail Steven. “Nothing has changed for me. He was treated so unfairly by the corrupt left and you, the media mafia ”.
Carol was more interested in attacking the new president Joe Biden.
“Let’s see if you like a dishonest money laundering cheater who is senile and can’t tie a sentence and a VP who was a failure [California attorney general] and I didn’t make it through the primaries. “
H. Lindsay was furious, but not at Trump. He was angry at the GOP.
“The Republican Party has just committed suicide BY NOT interrupting the certification” of the vote declaring Biden the winner. “White people will be a permanent minority in this country now, the white genocide will be complete.”
My old friend Dana Martin – a hardware salesman from Temecula with whom I periodically met to try to understand Trump’s appeal – said he and his friends were “shocked and disbelieving” at what happened in Washington on Wednesday. But he didn’t think it was just Trump’s fault.
“The media and many of our political leaders share the blame,” said Martin, who also told me that he escaped from “messy” California and moved to Idaho.
I agree with Martin about the media and political leaders sharing the blame, but I think we have different villains in mind.
Trump was sustained for four years by Fox News, despite all the lies, hypocrisy, political failures. Day after day, the network normalized the ugliest, most divisive and abominable behavior ever seen in an American president.
I almost choked on Wednesday night when I moved to Fox and saw the “talent” wondering how the Duck Dynasty’s attempt to take over the Capitol could have happened.
Perhaps because Trump destroyed civility and faith in American institutions for four years while Fox supported him?
And let’s not forget that Fox, in the end, was rejected by Trump because he was not loyal enough to him and did not embrace all the absurd conspiracy theories perpetrated by the stupid fringe of the right-wing propaganda machines.
As for the political leaders who share the blame, let’s start with Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who has been so tightly tied to Trump’s back for the past four years that you would need Jaws of Life to free him.
On Wednesday, McCarthy was shocked, shocked by what was happening at the Capitol, where he and other lawmakers had to protect themselves in their offices because Trump’s acolytes, squeezed by the president, seemed ready to set the building on fire.
“This is so anti-American,” McCarthy said in a call to Fox News. “I condemn any type of violence. I couldn’t be more sad or disappointed with the way our country is now. “
Same? Did it take a bunch of looters of white fanatics taking over the Capitol for McCarthy to open his eyes and realize the horror he and others created by serving as apologists for a bully, a despot, a liar, a hypocrite and a fanatic?
“This is not the American way,” continued McCarthy.
Well, now it is. And he may be here to stay for years to come, because McCarthy did not have the decency, the humanity, the courage to face all of Donald Trump’s abuses.
Now we have some Trump supporters, like Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky walking away from the burning remains of the Trump presidency, rats jumping off a sinking ship. Not in the interest of truth and justice, but for your own political survival.
And oh, my God, look at the integrity of all these Trump officials who resigned now because of the Capitol disaster, as if it just occurred to them that their boss was a dangerous egomaniac madman.
From Idaho, Martin reminded me that just two months ago, 74 million people voted for Trump and, to be honest, this is even more demoralizing to me than the fact that Trump exists. And a large percentage of those voters, argued Martin, believe that the election was rigged.
“Don’t you think that all of our lawmakers have a responsibility to the American people to conduct a thorough investigation into documented voter irregularities in this latest election?” Martin asked.
I believe that courts, election officials and state legislatures have analyzed dozens of fraudulent electoral claims and considered them a joke.
I believe the investigation should be about why the president and white lawmakers tried to suppress the vote and, when they failed, insisted that the vote was rigged – especially in predominantly Black communities.
Where was the outrage, Martin asked, during “the riots, shootings, building fires we saw during the summer in some of our largest democratically controlled and managed cities?”
As I recall, there was outrage, including President-elect Joe Biden. Maybe not enough in some ways, but let’s make something very clear:
This agitation was fueled by centuries of racial injustice and the murder of a black man by a white policeman, broadcast on national television.
The agitation in DC was fueled by a painful loser of a president who cannot accept the irrefutable evidence that in four years he lost the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency.
I was driving south on the Santa Ana Freeway on Wednesday when a white six-wheeler the size of the Staples Center entered the highway with the U.S. and Trump flags flying. The occupants wore MAGA hats and a sign on the window said “It’s not over yet.”
Yes, it kind of is, for now.
Thank God.