Little Noted, But Long Remembered

 

It strikes me as no small thing that the actions yesterday by supporters of the Republican president resulted in a Confederate banner being carried in the halls of the US capitol, because this nation found itself once again under a test: whether a nation conceived in liberty under the proposition that all men are created equal, could long endure. And that president told his supporters, basically, "You are more equal than them sons of bitches, so let's go fuck shit up." 

So Trump, a little man standing in the shadow of history, who ginned up his supporters with tales of the vast disrespect done to our flag when anti-racist protestors took a humble knee, sent his folks over in broad daylight to the capitol, where they broke glass in the halls were great statemen have walked and they carried not only the Confederate stars and bars banner*, but tried to replace our flag, the US flag, with one bearing the name of a single man: Trump. They did this in great umbrage that the Vice President and members of congress were gathered to do what the Constitution to which they pledged themselves to do required, and no more.

And they called themselves patriots, then, and even took selfies while being egged on by comrades on social media, where insurrectionist language has been used for ages, since even before Trump began his run for office.

Once these people, these barbarians inside the gate, had terrorized our lawmakers, their apologists trotted out a lie that had been pre-planned: "Blame the Comintern Antifa."

Nice try. We know very well who these people are. We don't forget the faces of Traditionalist Workers Party and Q-Anon and Proud Boys folks who have been to Trump rallies and who Trump weakly damned with faint praise after Charlottesville. We won't forget what happened, or who is responsible. 

We have a republic, if we can keep it, but the price of it is eternal vigilance and its defense must be married with a long memory for what has been sacrificed to protect and defend it from its enemies. We can not and must not forget.

*See comments re: "stars and bars" below.