Imagine if Trump’s insurgents were armed that day they overtook the Capitol.
We hear a lot, and rightfully so, from some of our minority communities asking us to imagine what would have happened if the Trump insurgents were African American, Muslim or any other non-white minority group. Their claims are that the outcome would have been very different, and not in a good way. And they are absolutely right.
They would have surely been met with far more police and federal agents force than what the Trump insurgents had to deal with. And the response from law enforcement could have looked a lot more like what we saw on the streets of D.C. or Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd.
My question is: What if Trumps insurgents were actually armed like the ones that protested at, and breached the Michigan State Capitol in 2020 and again on January 6th, 2021? Further, what if the insurgents were deep under the spell of martyrdom, encouraged and validated by Trump’s rhetoric of “stop the steal”, Guiliani’s rhetoric of “trial by combat”, and other far right wing zealots’ calls for a take back of the government by any means necessary
The answer is horrifying.
In this scenario, lets assume the Trump insurgents were armed but their intentions were not to use them. Fueled by rage and coercion from the highest office in the land, and the delusion that their beloved country was being taken away from them, all it would have took was a frightened Capitol police officer or two to open fire in defense of the Capitol or himself, and all hell would have broke loose. Insurgents would have surely fired back in their own self defense and the result would have been a literal civil war battlefield break out in front of our eyes at the Capitol that day. Countless insurgents and police officers, and innocent protestors would have lost their lives in what would have been the closest moment to a civil war we have ever been since the last one.
Now imagine that the Trump insurgents were armed and their intentions were to literally “Stop the Steal”. Imagine that, after storming their way past the woefully understaffed Capitol police and into the Senate chambers before everyone had a chance to evacuate, they opened fire. The outcome would have been dozens and dozens of United States Senators, and their staff, murdered in cold blood right there in the Capitol building, in the name of Donald J Trump. Let me repeat, dozens and dozens of our United States Senators murdered.
I don’t think this scenario is too outlandish when you consider the bullying and intimidation tactics the Trump insurgents have carried out at State Capitols, like Michigan throughout 2020 and on January 6th, 2021. Mob mentality, religious zealotry, martyrdom and blind allegiance to a cult leader make for a very lethal mix of uncertainty. Uncertainty that could have resulted in the murder of United States Senators.
Remember this the next time we argue about whether or not to call these insurgents, these domestic terrorists, anything other than what they are. Remember this the next time we have a debate about gun control.
And remember this the next time you read a poll, like the recent Newsweek Poll, that says more than 45% of Republicans supported the storming of the Capitol.
The reckoning is upon us. The reckoning of who we really are as a country where over a quarter of our population supported this coup attempt.
