Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald: Pro Trump flags and signs adorned the vehicles at a Trump rally in Graham County in August 2020.
Column By Mike Bibb
Run for your lives. The Trumpsters are coming! The Trumpsters are coming!
Not since the Civil War have so many military troops been assigned to protect the nation’s capital. Only this time, there wasn’t a threat of an approaching army. Just the delusion of a newly elected president and his advisers, that outgoing President Trump’s sympathetic followers and election deniers were going to cause trouble . . . again.
Tens of thousands of National Guard members were urgently dispatched to Washington D.C. in anticipation of an insurrection – or “erection”, as Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY-D) called it. In fairness, I can understand Chuck’s slip of the tongue. Even when reading from a prepared speech or teleprompter, he sometimes has difficulty keeping his words straight.
Anyway, with no columns of advancing Trump antagonists in sight, President Biden was routinely sworn into office; just as the previous 45 presidents have been. An official celebration and parade were held, but the public wasn’t allowed to attend. Too dangerous. Plus, COVID must have contaminated every molecule of air in the area. Only Washington toadies and insiders, protected by a ring of heavily armed troops, Secret Service, Washington Police, and who knows who else, were allowed to witness the momentous occasion.
Not exactly a unifying display of “peaceful transition of power.” Rather, a globally televised event to various world leaders that the despised former Republican president was safely out of office and a 78-year-old Democratic political antique was now residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Just to make sure everyone got the message, more police and armed forces personnel were quickly moved to the nation’s capital than presently assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan. No other incoming U.S. president has ever been responsible for such an overly exaggerated show of military presence than Joe Biden.
For a guy who rarely came out of his house to campaign, it seems bizarre he or his handlers, felt it necessary to shield him from an imagined threat that had no basis in fact. The previously preplanned Washington protest of Jan. 6, involved a few hundred alleged Trump malcontents, a very small percentage of the multiple thousands of Trump’s rally-goers. They had their 15 minutes of fame and were not a serious threat to permanently occupying the Capitol. Their protest was over in a few hours and Congress resumed work. Many of these jokers have been arrested.
A stark contrast to the costly destructive riots we’ve recently seen. Nevertheless, the event became an excuse for Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats to impeach Trump for another concocted calamity; instead of focusing on inadequate police planning and failed security.
Biden’s Jan. 20 Inauguration was never in danger of being overrun by legions of Trump fanatics, and there was certainly no justification in preparing for a military-like assault. The city had already been locked-down for the most part, and the Red Cap Army wasn’t threatening to cross the Potomac.
But, you wouldn’t know it from all the biased news coverage and hollow-headed reporting that Washington was in imminent danger of a full-frontal attack by frenzied mobs of MAGA Trumpsters.
Contrary to what may be assumed, a Trump flag and poster attached to a plastic pipe is not an assault rifle and a red baseball cap is not a camouflaged kevlar helmet. With the possible exception of woke-brained individuals, most people can tell the difference.
To think, along with reversing many of Trump’s previous declarations, halting wall construction along our southern border, shutting down petroleum-related businesses, canceling transgender bans for new military recruits, and talk of increasing taxes during a pandemic are only a few things Joe served up. Actually, Biden signed over two dozen Executives Orders during his first week in office. More than any president in history.
Then, of course, there’s the legality of the impeachment issue: Can a former president be lawfully charged with “Inciting an Insurrection” and removed from office after he’s already lost an election and left town?
Common sense would indicate no. Similar to refiring an employee who is no longer on the payroll. What’s the point?
Unfortunately, we’re not dealing with common sense, but a hybrid mixture of unrestrained hatred and loosened contempt for a president who had the temerity of challenging Washington’s status quo. Consequently, another phony impeachment charade has to be rushed through in order to lend some legitimate credence to the deception.
For Trump’s perceived act of mutiny against the establishment, Democrats must permanently punish Trump and exile him forever from seeking or holding another federal government job. Failure to do so leaves open the door to his return in 2024.
If, however, the impeachment is determined to be unlawful, or the Senate fails to convict, then all of this nonsense is just more foolish theatrics from a bunch of rich, super-partisan politians who seem incapable of dealing with reality.
They just couldn’t leave Trump alone when he was president, and they still can’t leave him alone when he’s no longer president. There’s a mental illness definition for this ailment, but I’ll leave it to the professionals to explain it.
