Coolidge
It was 2:30 am on August 3rd, 1923. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was vacationing at his family home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. There was no electricity or phone to the site, no way for instant communication. Vermont State Representative Porter Dale had to personally deliver the news to the Vice President. The President of the United States, Warren Harding, died of sudden cardiac arrest in San Francisco at 10:30 pm (EST) the night before.
Coolidge got up, got dressed and said a prayer. He asked the closest Justice of the Peace, his father John Calvin Coolidge Sr, to administer the Presidential Oath. The thirtieth President of the United States was sworn into office by kerosene lamp light at 2:47 am in the family parlor. After the Presidential succession was assured, Coolidge went back to bed.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr will become President of the United States at noon (EST) on Wednesday, January 20th. The formal “oath taking” is necessary but not required. Biden assumes the duties, and Donald Trump no longer is President when the clock strikes noon. Whether Biden is sworn on the Capitol West Front Portico on in Statuary Hall; the Oval Office of the White House, or the back of a limousine or in the aisle of a plane, he will become President at noon. Whatever disruption occurs in Washington Biden’s ascension to office is assured. Though, over 20,000 National Guard troops make disruption less likely.
Insurrection
As the days passed since the insurrection of January 6th, we’ve learned so much about what we watched in horror. What looked like a mob gone far wrong turned out to include multiple groups with specific “missions” in mind. Some were looking for the Vice President or Speaker Pelosi, and some for targeted members of Congress.
Under cover of the overall mob violence, we now know those “teams” came perilously close to their objectives. Vice President Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber just sixty seconds ahead of the mob. But they were right behind him. Only the quick-thinking actions of one Capitol Police officer, Eugene Goodman, redirected the mob from the office where Pence and his family were sheltering. They were within 100 feet of the Vice President, the man that they promised to hang. The gallows were already erected outside.
In the Crowd
So who were these insurrectionists? They were willing to break into the Capitol, battle the police (some using “Blue Line” flags as weapons) and threaten the legislative branch of government. From watching the scene on television, they seemed like supporters of Donald Trump, “MAGA” folk, the same folks we have seen at the rallies and truck parades. And those were a lot of the people pushing into the Capitol, breaking the glass and pursuing the guards. But among them were white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, and even a scattering of people drawn to the flames of destruction despite their views. They included one Black Lives Matters activist from Utah.
District of Columbia Metro Police officers who arrived late on the scene, reveal that they were not only out-manned by the number of rioters, but out-gunned as well. One officer, dragged into the crowd and in fear for his life, reached for his pistol. But he realized that if he shot, a hail of bullets would be returned killing him and his fellow officers. Surrounded by the crowd, he instead appealed to their humanity, yelling that he had kids. He was encircled by a few protectors, that led him to get back to his fellow officers. To those protectors, the officer said, “Thanks for the help, and F**k you for being there”.
Crazies
So what was this mix that used Donald Trump’s words and the ensuing violence to follow their own agenda? One now under arrest, Jake Angeli, is a QAnon advocate who stood out in buckskin pants, a fur cape and horns. His lawyer claims that Angeli was only following the “orders” of the President, and should receive a full Presidential pardon.
QAnon believers are awaiting “The Storm”, when President Trump will order martial law and take over the government. They are convinced that the President’s opponents, and particularly the Democratic leadership, are pedophiles who actually eat children. Their “godhead” includes a living John Kennedy Jr, who will reappear to ally with Trump and take over. They are probably excited that troops line the streets of Washington DC today – they surely see this as proof of their prophecy.
If it sounds crazy, a result of too much time in quarantine and on the internet, you’re probably right. But they are true faithful – look back at the front of the Capitol in January 6th and see the number of “Q” flags and symbols.
Supremacists
Then there are the more typical white supremacists; the ones we got to know so well in Charlottesville. “Jews will not replace us” was their battle cry then, and I’m sure there was a search for Schumer and Schiff and other Jewish legislators in the melee. Probably they aren’t aware of the religious preference of Congressman Lee Zeldin, a staunch Trump supporter, though it’s hard to imagine they don’t know Jared Kushner’s background.
And, of course, they searched for “the Squad”; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. These Members of Congress, women of color, felt so threatened by their fellow Congressmen that they didn’t stay in “the extraction site” where Members were taken for protection. They believed that some of the others Members might communicate their location to the “mob” outside. AOC isn’t telling the entire story yet, but at least she had a close encounter with a dangerous situation that day.
Who To Sleep With
White Supremacists, QAnon supporters, Boogaloo Bois, Proud Boys: there were “fine people” on all sides of this riot. And then there were the “regular” Trump supporters, egged on by Giuliani and Congressman Mo Brooks and Don Junior, as well as the President himself, to “march on the Capitol” and “fight, fight, fight”. They should have looked around to see who they were marching with.
The media and law enforcement now call this a “white supremacist” riot. At first, I was confused: I just thought this was Trump supporters having Trump’s promised “wild time”. But as we look back at January 6th, we see the emergence of a threat even greater than Donald Trump himself. This is a threat not of the normal “conservative right”. It is extremists who threaten to take our world back to the “good old days”, the time of Calvin Coolidge. That was when the Ku Klux Klan marched fully robed and hooded down the streets of Washington, DC, twenty-five thousand strong. It was the height of their political and social power.
Trump supporters: look around. Is this who you want to “sleep” with? Because these are the groups that chose Donald Trump. And he is happy to “bed” with them.
