Post-America stares into the abyss

 

So the pipe bombs have been found and presumably dismantled. The gallows that had been hastily erected on Capitol grounds is likewise presumably gone by now. A fistfight between two Democrat House members and one Republican was averted on the floor of that chamber once Congress returned after the National Guard had secured the Capitol. Some of the idiot Republicans who'd intended to object to the Arizona and/or Pennsylvania Electoral College results had changes of heart after the, shall we say, interruption. 

But this wasn't a hiccup-type incident, after which basic order will once again prevail and the nation's citizens will turn their eyes to productive and unity-conducive activities. Lasting damage has been a feature of the post-American landscape for some time, but yesterday afternoon gave us a look at an entirely new level.

The head of the executive branch egged on his cult followers with a fiery speech harping yet again on the theme of a stolen election. He exhorted them to march up to Capitol Hill. His subsequent tweets - what a lame way for the chief executive of the world's most powerful nation to address what was going on  - finally culminated in a call for his slavish devotees to go home, but not before he, yet again, spoke of a stolen election. 

Did he anticipate that they would take their actions as far as they did? Do you really doubt it?

He was surely radiating glee at the thought of the Constitutional obligation of the legislative branch to count electoral votes being interrupted by force. 

It's being reported that Mike Pence is red-hot angry with Trump for his midday speech and his recent antics in general. That's good, Mike, you just stew in your anger for a while. Let it steer your thoughts back to May 2016, when you, while sitting in the governor's mansion in Indianapolis, made your Faustian bargain. Let it steer your thoughts back to that state dinner in Washington at which Marilyn Coats kept sending you looks intended to say, "How do you sleep at night being part of this?" You got it. It burned deep into your soul. But you stayed the course and now here you are.

It's a pickle, isn't it? We have two weeks to go. Not enough time for a Senate trial if impeachment is initiated. The 25th Amendment would surely ratchet up the ugliness. We now have proof that Trumpism can be as savage as Antifa-style leftism. 

But he does need to go, yet this morning. 

The damage done to the Capitol building's offices and hallways, doors and windows serves as a kind of metaphor for the damage done to our institutions and our national character by giving this charlatan the time of day.

I don't know if the Republican Party can be salvaged or not. It is encouraging to see some principled voices speaking out. But I do know that conservatism needs to squarely look at how so many of its adherents ever came to think that this unfit buffoon could somehow embody their hopes for the kind of nation they'd always envisioned.

I wish it did not have to go as far as it has for the colossal mistake of giving the time of day to Donald Trump to become apparent to most of us. 

But now we know. What shall we do?