New Yorker: Among the Insurrectionists
By the end of President Donald Trumps crusade against American democracyafter a relentless deployment of propaganda, demagoguery, intimidation, and fearmongering aimed at persuading as many Americans as possible to repudiate their countrys foundational principlesa single word sufficed to nudge his most fanatical supporters into open insurrection. Thousands of them had assembled on the Mall, in Washington, D.C., on the morning of January 6th, to hear Trump address them from a stage outside the White House. From where I stood, at the foot of the Washington Monument, you had to strain to see his image on a jumbotron that had been set up on Constitution Avenue. His voice, however, projected clearly through powerful speakers as he rehashed the debunked allegations of massive fraud which hed been propagating for months. Then he summarized the supposed crimes, simply, as bullshit.
Bullshit! Bullshit! the crowd chanted. It was a peculiar mixture of emotion that had become familiar at pro-Trump rallies since he lost the election: half mutinous rage, half gleeful excitement at being licensed to act on it. The profanity signalled a final jettisoning of whatever residual deference to political norms had survived the past four years. In front of me, a middle-aged man wearing a Trump flag as a cape told a young man standing beside him, Theres gonna be a war. His tone was resigned, as if he were at last embracing a truth that he had long resisted. Im ready to fight, he said. The young man nodded. He had a thin mustache and hugged a life-size mannequin with duct tape over its eyes, traitor scrawled on its chest, and a noose around its neck.
We want to be so nice, Trump said. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. Were going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us.
About a mile and a half away, at the east end of the Mall, Vice-President Pence and both houses of Congress had convened to certify the Electoral College votes that had made Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the next President and Vice-President of the United States. In December, a hundred and forty Republican representativestwo-thirds of the caucushad said that they would formally object to the certification of several swing states. Fourteen Republican senators, led by Josh Hawley, of Missouri, and Ted Cruz, of Texas, had joined the effort. The lawmakers lacked the authority to overturn the election, but Trump and his allies had concocted a fantastical alternative: Pence, as the presiding officer of the Senate, could single-handedly nullify votes from states that Biden had won. Pence, though, had advised Congress that the Constitution constrained him from taking such action.
After this, were going to walk down, and Ill be there with you, Trump told the crowd. The people around me exchanged looks of astonishment and delight. Were going to walk down to the Capitol, and were going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. Were probably not going to be cheering so much for some of thembecause youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.
Much more at:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/among-the-insurrectionists
This may be one of the most important things you will ever read.
underpants
(182,988 posts)He was in the Senate chamber. I didnt know that QBacca lead a prayer.
UpInArms
(51,289 posts)from so many other places was very enlightening
Cheezoholic
(2,044 posts)The best narrative to date not only of the events of 1/6 but of pivotal events leading up to it. Perfect text to go along with the New Yorkers video release today. The print version will be appropriately coming out on inauguration day.
Mogelson is one of my favorite reporter's btw so I may be biased, but I think not. His article in NYT Magazine nearly 10 years ago about the killing of Afghan civilians by US soldiers is a gut wrencher. More importantly it is an eye opener to the cost of baseless war and the blurred line of the true victims of such wars, for a generation never exposed to the the realities of Vietnam.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/magazine/mag-01KillTeam-t.html