The Big LIe

Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time.  He was impeached for inciting an insurrection that encouraged hundreds of people to come to Washington DC and disrupt the counting of the Electoral Votes by Congress.  An action, that while allows for some protestation on the part of members, has been a simple function for decades and there was no real path for any protest or rally to change the outcome.  The President lost the election.  It was free and it was fair and the months of saying it was rigged, that states violated their laws, that some how there was something wrong with how everything was conducted and that he simply won was a lie.  A big lie.  A lie that would drill into the brains of the most extreme radicals in our country and inflame conspiracy theorists.  So on January 6, 2021, as the Congress began the process of doing their Constitutional obligation, members of the rally that the President called to Washington, that he told to fight, who he enraged with rhetoric of stolen elections.  

Hundreds of people attacked the woefully unsupported Capitol police and stormed into the building, a temple to democracy, through broken windows and doors.  They were looking to harm members of Congress, they built a gallows with the intent of hanging the Vice-President, who wouldn't violate his oath of office for President Trump.  Five people are dead as a result this attempted coup including two police officers.  One beaten by the crowd who died as a result, another who died by suicide.  

There is also disturbing evidence that some Republican members helped the domestic terrorists, hell bent on overthrowing the election, during the siege.  There is an investigation that some Trump supporting members of Congress even gave tours to those plotting the attack.  One is even may have used social media to direct those in the Capitol to find Speaker Pelosi and others who were targeted for possible assassination.

This coming Wednesday, Joseph Biden will become the President.  The lie that some how the election was a fraud and rigged however continues to be perpetuated by a large number of people, including members of Congress.  Some polls suggest up to 75% of Republicans think that election was stolen.  The big lie has penetrated the minds of many and among those are the most extreme people on the right.  Tens of thousands of armed troops will lock down Washington DC this week.  A place that usually has a lot of security but still felt like an American city that allowed for free movement.  Not today.  Our country is broken and the President broke it and many in the GOP took the broken piece and ran them through a meat grinder.  The pieces will be what President-elect Biden will inherit.  But now, after lying to the American people, after years of enabling Trump's attack on the American system and norms, after some members may have helped the terrorists who attacked the Capitol, there are calls for unity.  This is not time for that.  It is time to hold those accountable for what has happened to this country.  It is time to remember that elections have consequences.  It is time to build back better and if that hurts some GOP feelings, well I remember hearing a phrase about that.  Now what was it????????