“The coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of insurrectionists was a dark day for our democracy.
“It was not a First Amendment-protected protest. It was not a political rally. It was a seditious and treasonous act. Not since the British burned down the White House in 1814 has an institution of our government been defiled in such an egregious and ugly manner.
“In the five years since Donald Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower and announced his candidacy for President, we have seen an unprecedented and abnormal rise of violent right-wing extremism in the United States and beyond.”
– Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League
After the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 – after the destruction, after the death, and a week before the inauguration of President Joe Biden – Americans are witnessing the nation's capital in lockdown as 25,000 National Guard members secure the city.
Washington D.C. is closing down as the Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned of further uprisings, including threats to lawmakers and federal monuments, and the possibility of armed groups demonstrating in the city before and on January 20.
In addition, the FBI has warned that armed protests by violent Trump supporters were being planned in all 50 state capitals as well as in Washington D.C. for the days leading up to the inauguration. Governors like Ohio's Mike DeWine have authorized National Guard members to conduct training and be prepared in case called upon to police such protests.
Imagine. This is the most hostile transition in history.
The public usually gathers on the National Mall to watch the inauguration, but this year officials asked that people stay away and participate online instead. National Park Service officials told NBC News that the entire National Mall may be closed to the public on Inauguration Day,
“We're not asking people to come to D.C. for this is a major security threat, and we are working to mitigate those threats,” D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said. "I remain concerned. I've been concerned before today will be for this weekend, and beyond."
Imagine. The disgrace the nation now suffers is unparalleled.
As a child of the Cold War, I remember hearing the words of late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev: “We will take America without firing a shot ... We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.” Never, never did I expect to wake up to an America so torn by political unrest that I fear Khrushchev may be right.
Imagine. A monstrous destructive force has been energized by an American president.
It has never been more clear: right-wing extremism directly endangers our nation and jeopardizes our democracy. As Jonathan Greenblatt reports, “This is not an exaggeration. It is the embodiment of a clear and present danger.”
(Jonathan Greenblatt. “White Supremacism Is a Domestic Terror Threat That Will Outlast Trump.” Time. January 07, 2021.)
Imagine. Some politicians still deny the source of the danger from within.
The evidence is clear. The domestic terror threats from White Supremests and right-wing extremists are ripping the threads of American unity while their prejudiced causes are blooming under the tent of the Republican Party. Consider the following:
Overall hate crimes have skyrocketed in recent years to the highest in over a decade, and bias-motivated murders reached a record high in 2019. According to FBI statistics (2020), these hate crimes have surged nearly 20 percent during the administration of President Donald Trump
Hate is up across the board. 28 percent of Americans experienced severe levels of cyberhate and online harassment, according to Anti-Defamation League's most recent survey (June 2020).
Over the past four years, the Trump Administration has decimated the funding for efforts to prevent radicalization and recruitment into terror groups.
A Loyola University School of Law study (G.S. Edwards and S. Rushin. “The Effect of President Trump's Election on Hate Crime.” January 14, 2018) showed that Donald Trump’s election in November of 2016 was associated with a statistically significant surge in reported hate crimes across the United States, even when controlling for alternative explanations.
Larry Rosenthal, chair and lead researcher of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, said that the “Stop the Steal” mob on January 6, 2021, was generally made up of two groups -- right-wing populists, whom he described as part of Trump’s most faithful “rally-goers.” Some of them did not engage in violence and were "not prepared for insurrection." There were also right-wing militia groups that represent two overlapping “currents” of the far right movement: white nationalism and anti-government.
These two themes were also reflected in the mix of symbology scattered in the crowd – far-right symbols that included symbols of the Confederacy, Nazism, white supremacy, and anarchy, experts said.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a sociology professor at American University who studies extremism and far-right movements, said that along with some “violent extremists from within the MAGA or Trump supporting group," the mob included “a toxic mix” of groups from across “the far-right spectrum.”
(Deena Zaru. “The symbols of hate and far-right extremism on display in pro-Trump Capitol siege.” ABC News. January 14, 2021.)
The mob featured Proud Boys, Three-Percenters, and many other far-right groups displaying “OK” White power hand gestures, “Q” (QAnon) symbols, Nazi and White supremacist signs with phrases like "Camp Auschwitz" and "Work Brings Freedom," nooses symbolizing the threat against racial minorities and “The Day of the Rope” for traitors, Confederate flags, and Gadsden flags displaying rattlesnakes and “Don't Tread on Me,”
Imagine. After January 6, America still faces despicable insurrectionist mobs intent on taking the life and limb of their sworn enemies.
The Center For Strategic and International Studies White reports that supremacist networks are highly decentralized. Most believe that whites have their own culture that is superior to other cultures, are genetically superior to other peoples, and should exert dominance over others.
Many of these white supremacists also adhere, in varying degrees, to the Great Replacement conspiracy – popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2012 book Le Grand Remplacement. The conspiracy claims that whites are being eradicated by ethnic and racial minorities – including Jews and immigrants.
Lately, under Trump, some of the GOP's most stalwart voices have drummed up a more explicit accusation that immigrants are here to steal the very essence of America and replace it with something foreign – an idea plucked directly from the Great Replacement conspiracy. Intermingled with a "white genocide" conspiracy theory, it proposes that a variety of factors, such as an influx of nonwhite immigrants, multiculturalism, and falling birthrates among white Europeans, will result in white populations losing their position as the dominant demographic.
Nikki McCann Ramírez, researcher at Media Matters for America who focused on right-wing misinformation and far-right extremism, says …
“The conspiracy theory creates a dangerous dynamic in which believers view immigrants and non-white citizens as an existential threat to their communities. And the theory is not a purely academic endeavor; it seeks to mobilize believers into action against their supposed 'replacement.' This mobilization manifests itself in various ways, including political activism against immigration, efforts to encourage white women to have more children to bolster demographic growth, and, in an extreme form, deadly violence against immigrants and communities of color.”
(Nikki McCann Ramírez. “A racist conspiracy theory called the 'great replacement' has made its way from far-right media to the GOP.” Business Insider. September 07, 2020.)
The right-wing terrorist threat also includes anti-government extremists, including militias and the sovereign citizen movement. Most militia extremists view the U.S. government as corrupt and a threat to freedom and rights. Other far-right anti-government groups mobilized to protect a perceived threat to individual gun ownership rights. Modern militias are organized as paramilitaries that conduct weapons training and other field exercises.
Anti-government extremists, which sometimes blend with white supremacist movements, have used the slang word “boogaloo” as a shorthand for a coming civil war. Several popular Facebook groups and Instagram pages, such as Thicc Boog Line, P A T R I O T Wave, and Boogaloo Nation, have emerged spreading the boogaloo conspiracy.
(Seth G. Jones, Catrina Doxsee, and Nicholas Harrington. “The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States.” Center For Strategic and International Studies. June 17, 2020.)
Imagine. White supremacists, right-wing terrorists, and anti-government extremists plan to again and again run amok and furiously attack their political targets.
Those who attacked the U.S. Capitol repeated again and again that they owned the property and the right to engage in a violent uprising. They had NO such ownership or No such right. No movement, no political party, or no Constitutional authority gave them permission to defile the Capitol and hold Congress captive.
And, now, the anarchists threaten more insurrection. We must not permit this madness. We must treat these violent anarchists like criminals – both those engaging in actions and those who otherwise support their movements – and we must not dismiss their betrayal with some far-fetched political justification. Our nation is under attack. The Cult of Trump cripples the nation. Without immediate attention to stop the mobs and reject the twisted ideology, the nation will continue to fall.
“Evil into the mind of God or Man
May come and go, so unreproved, and leave
No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope
That what in sleep thou didst abhor to dream,
Waking thou never will consent to do.”
From Paradise Lost: Book 5, John Milton
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