The Failed Coup on January 6 Began Decades Earlier

For Americans who don’t believe that history is important, that what happened decades in our past is an opportunity to learn from our mistakes, are shocked when our failures from the past are repeated.

Beginning in January of 2017, the darkest moments of America’s past began to reappear. The advancements made for our society were tossed away or forgotten, as parts of our lesser and unpleasant historical events were not only repeated but celebrated by millions of men and women who called themselves patriots.

White supremacist/Neo-Nazi organizations not only came out from the shadows but also became a force in our political system. Knowing they had a leader in the White House, they felt power they had not experienced since their ancestors supported Hitler’s efforts to become the “king of the world” in the years between 1931, and 1945.

The formal end of WWII occurred on September 2, 1945. However, for millions of people around the world and an unknown number in America, the war continues. White supremacists are cancer that has never been cured and continues to be part of our nation’s darker side. What continues to happen in our country in the 21st century proves that no one wins a war, only one of the armies is defeated.

Ideologies, philosophies, fear, hatred without cause, all emotions which are often contained deep inside ignorant psyches never die, they hide and wait for an opportunity to be released and discover support from others who share their twisted views. The demise of the United States became a goal of many nations other than England immediately after the end of the Revolutionary War. The war within the new nation continued as not all citizens of the new nation supported our war against the British Empire.

When Trump was illegitimately gifted the Electoral College in 2016, what we once believed were fringe groups found support from millions of like-minded people who had been hiding under their rocks for years, if not generations. For millions of Trump supporters, their goal of overthrowing the government of the United States became a possibility.

If the truth was offered by those who know the facts, no one who supported Trump believed that he would win the 2020 election. “The polls be damned.” He was expected to lose, his support was limited to his cult. However, he had assistance from his handler, the President of Russia, and all real Americans were in shock on November 9, 2016.

Trump was despised by the larger majority of the American people over four years of his illegitimate presidency. No one who loved this country believed that anyone but a patriotic American should be allowed to reside in our nation’s most sacred residence.

A long-term plan began before the party’s conventions in July of 2016. Neo-Nazi groups were aware that our military and most members of law enforcement supported Trump’s fascist plans for America. With the aid of social media, Fox News, Newsmax, One News Network, and others, they created a plan to end democracy in America by any means possible.

With the assistance of Fox News and anti-American members of Trump’s own party, the final plans for a violent coup were finalized during the few weeks prior to the certification of the Electoral College vote. On January 6, 2021, my wife and I watched Trump order his fascist army to attack the Capitol and halt the final certification of the 2020 election we witnessed hundreds of anti-Americans gleefully vandalize and desecrate the building which houses our legislative branch. They were searching for Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, among others, with plans to assassinate them for performing the jobs for which they were democratically elected. This was far more than a riot, this was treason as defined in the dictionary.

The “two Americas” which continue to exist today did not begin recently. The origin of a second America began long before the Emancipation Proclamation and continued to exist after the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“The truth lives here,” and the saddest truth I can tell you is that I’m not sure that this division will ever heal. I’m not sure our nation’s people have the intelligence or the will to accept the intent of our founding fathers. Racism and bigotry have been serious problems for 246 years. I lack faith in the ability of humans to rise above their inherent ignorance and baseless prejudices and become a society that celebrates diversity and originality.

This is the challenge. Being an America requires compassion for others, understanding, acceptance, and celebrating our differences. America is not a nation composed of a single nationality, people who share the same thoughts and beliefs, or shared belief in a single religion. Diversity and America are and were intended to be synonyms. We must let the past be the past and move forward into the 21st century with other developed nations. Look to a future when the United States can become a great nation.

Op-ed by James Turnage, Novelist

Sources:

Mother Jones: We Need to Understand How We Got to January 6 Before We Can Move Forward; by Fernanda Echavarri
The Atlantic: TRUMP’S NEXT COUP HAS ALREADY BEGUN; by Barton Gellman
The Wire: The Trump Coup D’Etat and Insurrection Was Long in the Making, And Will Continue; by Inderjeet Parmar

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Brett Davis’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Gilbert Mercier’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License