If you aren’t angry by now about the attempted coup by a sitting president of the United States after the 2020 general election then, if you have been paying attention, there is something seriously wrong with you. This is no time to sit on the sidelines as if what is being revealed by the January 6th Committee, and other investigations, is just fodder for the media that has nothing to do with you.
The big question that looms is “Will Trump and his willing accomplices be held accountable?” Every single person in this country will be affected by the answer to that question.
Just Hearing His Name Should Make You Angry
Trump. When you hear that name the words "seditionist" and "traitor" should jump into your head. Need to hear more to make you angry? This week we learned that he held secret meetings IN OUR WHITE HOUSE over several days before the attack on the Capitol. Not down a dark alley in some clandestine location – IN OUR WHITE HOUSE!
The brazenness of this is disgusting. People in his administration openly plotting with him, in the house where our greatest presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt made historic decisions for the good of our county, should make your blood boil.
Need more to get your dander up? Documents that were released after a failed attempt to get the Supreme Court of the United States to block them revealed the existence of a draft executive order from December 16, 2020. Trump would have appointed a special counsel, namely psycho lawyer Sidney Powell, to “investigate” massive voter fraud. It also would have given power to his Secretary of Defense to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines equipment, electronically stored information and material records required for retention”. How long did he expect this to take? Sixty days.
He would have tried to extend his stay in office until well after the January 20th inauguration date. Imagine what would have happened if he had actually signed this order.
Feel your anger rising?
Here’s Another Name That Should Make You Angry
Rudy Giuliani. A man who was once lauded for his handling of the aftermath of an attack by foreign terrorists in 2001 was, and is, actively involved in plans to destroy our democracy.
We learned this week that he led an effort to create chaos on January 6th by arranging for alternate electors in seven states, won by Joe Biden, to meet on December 14, 2020 to certify their votes for Trump instead. And then had those fake certificates sent to the National Archives. Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party stated that they were told to meet per a request from the Trump campaign.
Meanwhile in Arizona, one of their fake electors, State Rep. Jake Hoffman, dodged the question posed by a persistent reporter. His response was “go ask the Arizona GOP” if you want to know why he did what he did.
In Pennsylvania, another fake elector stated that some of these electors wanted it included in the certificate that they were only “electors-in-waiting” and were only certifying their electoral votes for Trump on the chance that his lawsuits about voter fraud were successful.
The lawsuits weren’t successful and the wording was never entered into the certificates for any of the seven states even though Trump speechwriter and influencer Stephen Miller claimed that was the reason they wanted the alternates.
New York and Georgia Investigations Heating Up
Need more to stoke your anger? New York Attorney General Letitia James revealed this week that she has loads of evidence for her investigation into Trump’s company. She states the company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of his assets to secure loans and get tax benefits. This information has led some to believe it will push Trump to declare his candidacy for 2024 as he thinks being a candidate would shield him from prosecution.
This week the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, Fani T. Willis, requested a special grand jury to help her with her investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of Georgia’s election. We all heard the phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where he wanted him to “find” 11,780 votes to swing Georgia in his favor, but Willis is struggling to get people to cooperate in her investigation.
Unlike New York, Georgia is a criminal prosecution. Trump’s response? It was a perfect call, just like his call with Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden and his threat to the Ukraine president to withhold Congressionally approved money if he didn’t do what he wanted.
Trump needs to be held accountable in both New York and Georgia regardless of his attempt to run for office again. We will be livid if he gets off scot-free.
Joe Biden Should Make You Angry Too
As much as we all love Joe Biden, his hands off, keep quiet approach to the failed coup attempt should also make you angry. Biden held a press conference this week that lasted almost two hours. What did he talk about?
Covid. We have all been hearing the same old, same old about Covid for two years. If Biden hasn’t convinced people by now that they need to take personal responsibility to stop the spread, he isn’t going to. So why spend so much time rehashing the same talking points? We are all numb to it now.
Build Back Better (BBB). The American people, including GOP voters, all understand and want this legislation passed. Polls have shown that 62 percent of voters support BBB. And yet, it keeps getting shot down in the Senate. Joe is preaching to the choir about how important it is to get this bill passed.
Voting Rights. A Politico poll broke out the Voting Rights act to determine the support for the various components. The majority of those polled strongly support all of these key components. Unfortunately, an NPR poll also showed most voters are unfamiliar or do not understand what is happening at the state level to restrict their right to vote.
Be angry at your state representatives and governors if they are trying to keep you from voting regardless of the passage of a federal voting rights bill.
There are only two people who need to hear about the importance of setting voting guidelines at the federal level and get on board with American voters who put them in office – Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Both are working with the GOP to not only block the passage of this bill, but to keep the filibuster intact so the GOP can kill it. Biden should have publicly shamed these two as Trump would have done for those who wouldn’t loyally support him.
We want Joe to be publicly angry with those in his party who are working against him on issues that are overwhelmingly supported by Democrat and Republican voters alike. Losing big donors, as Sinema did this week, probably won’t change her mind as she is not up for re-election until 2024. She, and Manchin need to be publicly humiliated by their peers, the president and the Democratic party in their states.
Robert Reich hit the nail on the head when he stated that both Manchin and Sinema are doing this to feed their egos.
What didn’t Biden talk about at that press conference? He didn’t say a word about what we are learning from the January 6th Committee. Not one word. None of the reporters asked him about it. We want to hear from him on this subject. It’s just as important, if not more, than all of his other talking points.
Does he believe that justice will prevail and Trump will be held accountable? It wasn’t enough for him to call out Trump’s atrocities in a January 6th speech where he never mentioned his name.
We want to know if Biden supports prosecution and imprisonment for a former president who actively plotted to overturn the will of the American voters.
Channel Your Anger
What this country needs right now is a return to the 1960’s when people were angry enough about the war in Vietnam to continually protest. In a week where we celebrated MLK Jr. Day, we need to ask where are today’s leaders?
We need a Dr. King or a Ghandi. Leaders who will organize ongoing marches on college campuses, state houses and Washington D.C. Leaders who will help us channel our anger and peacefully keep pressure on the President and Congress to pick up the pace on the investigation of Trump’s failed coup. Leaders who will press for information so we know that Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice may already be building a case and really are going to prosecute Trump and his co-conspirators who want to take our country away from us.
We can’t let Trump and the GOP get a second chance to set themselves up as a dictatorship where voting is rigged in their favor as it is for Putin in Russia; if we will be allowed to vote at all. They have already shown disdain for our Constitution. Don’t let them get a chance to actually burn it on the White House lawn.
True patriots of this country should be seething if they are following what is going on and are worried another attempt may be successful. Our voices need to be heard loud and clear to drown out those of the ultra-right-wing minority in this country who get all of the media coverage.
Pay attention, get angry and get active! It’s not just the future of America at stake, it’s your future too.