Just as I urged people to accept that Trump beat Clinton in 2016, Biden beat Trump in 2020. Disagree with Biden all you want but get over it.
How did the assault on the US capitol building keep America great or make it great again? It was a deplorable insurrection, a seditious act. The people who participated were not great patriots. Keep in mind you don’t have to succeed in a seditious plot to be prosecuted for it. In fact, if you manage to violently overthrow the government, your chances of being prosecuted probably evaporate.
I read today that the chief of the capitol police force resigned as has the sergeant at arms of the House, and Sen. Schumer said he’ll fire the sergeant at arms of the Senate.
These things seem reasonable to me considering security was a complete disaster as the House and Senate met in joint session. All security and intelligence personnel in Washington and in the federal government were well aware that President Trump called on his supporters to demonstrate in Washington on January 6th as Congress met to verify the results of the Electoral College vote. Anyone who looked on the internet could easily find that some of the people planning to attend were talking about storming the Capitol. So, plainly, and depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you are, the storming of the Capitol was possible, likely or inevitable. Then, President Trump addressed the crowd, claiming once again that the election was stolen from him, and urged them to march on the Capitol. In my opinion, that eliminated possible from the odds of storming the Capitol, leaving only likely or inevitable. What happened must have been anticipated and should have been prepared for.
I have a little knowledge of building security and riot control. I was once a low-ranking enlisted man in an Army unit trained to do this work. My role was not to strategize, but it was public facing. I narrated an Army training film on the subject, and two demonstrations for the FBI National Academy. The Capitol Police Force is fairly large, over 2,000 officers, but that’s not big enough to control a crowd the size of the one that gathered. Other agencies should have been involved from the start. Instead of the light-weight barriers around the building, concrete ones (the kind you need a small crane to move) should have been deployed. Multiple agencies including DC police, National Guard, FBI, other federal police agencies, should all have been on site. Demonstrators should not have been allowed to get close enough to the Capitol building to storm it.
A show of force was once considered the initial step in crowd control. Now it’s thought to stir a crowd up. Still, National Guard and other reinforcements should have been inside the Capitol Building before the march started, ready to move on to the steps if things looked like they’d get out of hand. Most, if not all the doors to the building should have been locked too. There is so much more that security agencies could have done to prepare for what happened, and prevent these people from threatening the lives of our elected representatives who were meeting to carry out a constitutionally mandated process.
And to those people who insist there should be “an investigation,” how many reviews does this election need? Local election officials, state officials and numerous state and federal courts have all reviewed the myriad of lawsuits filed on behalf of President Trump. Recounts were counted and recounted. More than sixty cases have been denied in court, by judges who are Democrats and Republicans, some of whom were appointed by the sitting President, but followed the law, not the President’s desires, and not the rabble. Should investigations continue until you get one whose decision you like? If that happens, what is to prevent the people who didn’t come out on top in that investigation from demanding yet another? And the most important question of all. Rudy Giuliani suggested trial by combat to settle this. Exactly who did the President’s lawyer want President Trump to fight to the death to decide this?
If there was a Democratic, liberal or socialist conspiracy to fix the election, shouldn’t the people involved have been able to win more local elections too? Shouldn’t the people involved have been better at keeping that conspiracy a secret? Are John Bolton, Lindsey Graham, James Mattis, and Mitch McConnell well-known commie conspirators?
Could elections be run a little better? Sure. There are minor irregularities in almost all elections. Seldom do those affect the result. A few votes change, but except in the very closest contests, say in New York’s 22nd CD, they rarely if ever affect the outcome. Almost no evidence of fraud was submitted in court. In at least three cases, the President’s lawyers withdrew their cases when asked to produce evidence. The election was not covered in powdered sugar. It didn’t contain raisins or currants. It wasn’t stollen, and it wasn’t stolen either.
