The Die Is Cast

A political sign sums up what the majority of the nation has lived through for four years. Ironically, the message of American unity has been since ripped out of the ground along with a handful of Biden/Harris signs on the same street. The vandalism was all an act of meaningless, petty disrespect. The great state of Colorado awarded 55% of the popular vote to Biden; in Denver county alone, the Vice President garnered near 80%.

Photo: 1659, 012220

Denver, Colorado

Jan 07, 2021

Yesterday was a travesty; the actions of a minority of Trump loyalists, these extremists, did nothing to diminish the will of the majority who spoke with an overwhelmingly unified voice that was not only a rebuke of Trumpism but also its enablers.

You can't ignore what you saw with your own eyes on your phones and TV in the coming days as Whataboutism runs wild and conspiracy theories casting an alternative universe that the facts will not back up. The day was not just an assault on honor and integrity but on the fundamental idea that a peaceful transition of power is still foundational to the democratic norms of American democracy.

The 20th Amendment makes it clear that an outgoing President's day in power comes to a close at noon, giving time to fly away from the nation's capital to catch a late afternoon tee time should the weather hold January 20. Should it not, well, there's always tomorrow; your service to the federal government is over per se the United States Constitution. There is nothing in the constitution that states you can't leave now, resign, play golf and stay out of the way of the professionals who want to work for everyone in this country, not just those who wear the red MAGA hat.

Why do we even have a 20th Amendment that specifically spells out the day and time of our peaceful transfer of power? Before the amendment's ratification in 1933, presidents took the oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" on March 4. By the 1930s, technology had found a way to count votes faster; they didn't need all that time.

This delay equated to an extended lame-duck period. After the 1860 election, the authority and power of President-Elect Abraham Lincoln to act on the looming crisis of civil war was limited. So limited seven states seceded from the union as President Buchanan watched the country dissolve into flames and terrorism during what is now called the "Secession Winter." That winter, the south was busy mustering a confederate army to wage war against the federal government as the country was further splintering into a slaveholder's rebellion that killed an estimated one million men, women, and children.

The storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, was a disgraceful stunt perpetrated by an organized fascist mob of neo-confederates, terrorists. The world and country saw these reactionary men and women whose privilege should give us all pause as we work to dismantle further the systemic infrastructure that would allow for such a vulgar display of white supremacy. We all are watching the videos of them running roughshod over our nation's most sacred spaces; we are all looking at the photographs in horror. We are angry, stunned, and embarrassed.

Acts of violent insurrection against Americans by Americans on American soil must never be tolerated, not in 1860, not in 2021. These citizens wave American flags, but they are far from patriots. They are seditious bastards with loyalty to one man; an impeached, one-term president who not only lost the popular vote twice, but who is burning our fields and soiling our wells in retreat.

Alea iacta est—the die is cast.