So the Republicans have finally declared themselves enemies of the state. Lee Harvey Oswald was such an enemy. Now, apparently, he has 74 million admirers. Current marksmen are Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Matt Gaetz. Trump has had his weapons confiscated temporarily. The shock and awe of the Capitol capitulation will slowly attenuate from Republican delays, which is why we won’t see Trump convicted and probably never punished, in any meaningful way, regarding his most recent crimes. The sort of trial he deserves won’t occur because the criminal half of this former “republic” won’t allow it. Like Oswald did for some minutes, they currently occupy the sixth floor. So their assault on democracy will remain locked and loaded.
Our peculiar democracy will further unwind, as a minority of citizens — violent, vile, ignorant, deceived and self-deceiving — will self-perpetuate their rule by the ruse of the electoral college, gerrymandering and the tyranny of the Senate. That tyranny is in full view now. I doubt anyone can stop it. When red states with a half-million people have the same representation as blue states with forty million, the sick waltz toward tyranny will slow for a bit, but eventually conspire successfully to enslave us all. Their guns and their red state senators will always act as a cultural and political divide. We will learn to live with it because they will slowly nudge us into an unsettling tolerance. Perhaps they already have.
Tom Erwin
Salem