I write this hurriedly on Monday morning, 11 January, 2021.
I write with considerable concern. I’m not sure what is going to happen over the next few days, or the next few weeks. Even, I fear, the formal transfer of power from Trump to Biden will not end our period of national troubles. For so long as 70 million voted for Trump in the last election, and for so long as many of those misled souls believe that he was cheated out of office, and that Covid is a hoax, and that (heaven save us ) “Q” and Fox News are legitimate sources of news)…we will not be safe.
But today and tomorrow particularly worry me because of two things. This morning, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in the House will introduce articles of impeachment against Trump. It is fitting and just that Trump should be removed from office, and tried for his crimes against the Republic, but I fear what he and his supporters will do as a consequence.
What he has done to us...
Oh, and an aside, when the Republicans call for Democrats to restrain themselves in the name of “unity” and “moving on,” I wonder how we should respond? That is, to the people who spent eight years making a decent man’s life — meaning, Obama’s — utter hell, and spreading lies about him and his family? What do we say to someone who has been vile for decades, and now demands that we be decent?
But returning to my main point. Today worries me because of the vote. Tomorrow worries me because Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the town of Alamo, here in my home state of Texas. It is near his precious border wall…what little there is of it.
That terrifies me. If you do not know, the Alamo is also the name of the church/fortress in San Antonio where a Mexican army massacred a number of Anglo-Americans during the Texas war of independence. It is an important emblem of state pride for Texas, but, for some, it is also a symbol of white rage.
As a result, I am very, very concerned about what message he will convey…and about what his followers will do as a result. We know that he, and they, continue to talk about violence, and to dream of the armed overthrow of the American state.
Let us hope that the authorities are prepared for what is coming, as they were not on 6 January. Let us further hope that cooler heads prevail, and that law and peace…and national good will…are the order of the day.
Yet…
Yet…
Knowing Trump.
I am afraid.
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Let us unite and be as one.
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Until next time…
Onward and upward.
~mjt
Special Note: in the original version of this piece, I said that Trump was visiting the Alamo, the place, and not Alamo, the town. Sorry about that. As they say in the New York Times, we (meaning me) regret the error.
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