Democracy on the Line
Scattered throughout this website, we have addressed things like the recent all-out assault on truth, the gaslighting of Americans, conspiracy theories, and the damaging effects of social media and certain media outlets — but where does it all lead?
It all leads here: Angry and disillusioned Americans crash through security barricades, climb scaffolding, and scale walls to breach the United States Capitol. A furious and frantic mob shatter windows, splinter doors, and carry Tasers, guns, baseball bats, tear gas, truncheons, zip-tie handcuffs, and American flags with sharpened poles.
Members of the United States Congress, duly elected by We the People, crouch behind benches and lock themselves in bathrooms, terrified for their lives. The vice president of the United States of America and his family hide in a closet while trying to coordinate some sort of rescue. Enraged men pull a journalist down a flight of stairs, past graffiti that screams “Murder the Media,” then throws him over a ledge, screaming “We’ll f---ing kill you.”
Flags portray Donald Trump as Rambo and others have him astride a Tyrannosaurus rex, carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Flags honor QAnon, some with the favored abbreviation “WWG1WGA” (Where We Go One, We Go All).
Inflammatory flags reach as far as the eye can see. Confederate battle flags and American flags with stars replaced by the Roman numeral III, a symbol of the Three Percenters. Green-and-white flags of Kekistan, an alt-right fictional god of chaos and darkness. Flags with Nazi imagery and flags with the skull-like symbol of the Punisher. A yellow banner from the time of the American Revolution that has a rattlesnake along with the phrase Don’t Tread on Me.
Nooses, crusader crosses, fur and horns, and Pepe the Frog masks illuminate the scene. Chants of Stop the Steal and Trust the Plan; patches that read Oath Keepers and Zombie Outbreak Response Team; Camp Auschwitz sweatshirts; and t-shirts that say MAGA Civil War, Jan. 6, 2021, RWDS (Right-Wing Death Squad), and 6MWE (Six Million Wasn’t Enough), referring to the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, pretty much tell the story.
Five people dead, over 100 police officers injured, and four law enforcement officers die by suicide.