Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue

Folks, I just do not know what to tell you.

I lived through the police riot outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968, the Days of Rage in ’69, the Vietnam War protests, and I still never thought I’d see what I did yesterday. While nearly 150 Representatives and Senators were in the process of an unconstitutional attempt to overturn the election, the sitting President of the United States stood in front of a mob of white nationalist thugs and urged them to march on the Capitol. And they did—because, hey, what would they have to worry about? They’re White!

So instead of a pile of bodies below the steps (which is what we’d have if they’d been Black), a few hundred terrorists got past the apparently unarmed Capitol Police, invaded the Capitol, swanned through the halls, crowed in the Senate chamber and took selfies in the offices of Senators and Representatives. (Some CP also posed for selfies with the thugs. I am not making that up.)

I am utterly disgusted. And appalled. And ashamed. And so fucking furious I could spit teeth. Cadet Bonespurs, Moscow Mitch, McCarthy, Hawley, Cruz, Rubio, Nunes—hell, every damned Republican who went along to get along for the past four years: this douchebaggery is on you. The assault on the national legislature is the logical outcome of four years of letting Bonespurs get away with high crimes and misdemeanors in exchange for some federal judges. You got your wish: democracy has been breached; how’d you like huddling in some secure basement room while the mob howled outside?

It’s also on whoever’s running federal policing in the District (the rally was on National Park Service property, and then the mob moved to the Capitol), who were armed to the teeth in June to tear gas and beat down BLM protestors, but who mostly looked dressed for a parade yesterday. And who did nothing more than pepper spray the terrorists.

Well, you know: White.

(At one point, there was a report that the cops were trying to “de-escalate” the situation. Yeah, because: White.)

Capitol Police haven’t had any problem literally hauling away healthcare protestors in wheelchairs, or arresting veterans protesting the war in Iraq. But white nationalists? “Tryna de-escalate, dude.”

What the hell happened to all the billions in post-9/11 Capitol security?

Nah—that was a rhetorical question.

Well, like I said at the beginning, I just do not know what to tell you.