What we saw on Tuesday, January 6th, as a Joint Session of Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s election as President, was an attempted bloodless coup. We watched a mob of Pro-Tr*mp supporters given the complete ability to storm the Capitol building. The first three people in the order of the Presidential Succession, the VP/Speaker/Senate President Pro Tem were all inside when this took place. Confidential documents were stolen and photographed. All of this over an election that was in no way stolen or unfair. All of this stems from unchecked white privilege that has officially lost touch with reality.
As a black person or any person of color, we saw two things on display Tuesday; an attempted coup by a group of sore losers, and yes, white privilege at its peak. I would say imagine what the response would be if those protesters were black, but we don’t even have to imagine. During the Summer protests as black people took to the streets to protest for our lives, the national guard protected government buildings and monuments as if these peaceful protesters posed any serious threat to them. Juxtapose that to the almost nonexistent response to a mob that breached a federal building and has left five people dead.
The problem now lies in where do we go from here? Sure, the Joint Session reconvened to finish certifying Biden’s win as a show of our “democracy in action”- but is that enough? The one and only answer is no. There must be real accountability. Not just for the actual domestic terrorists that carried out the insurrection, but the President who has been inciting them for months, and the Republican Party that has enabled this behavior for 4 years. This also includes law enforcement agencies and officers who frankly should have known this was coming, and for failing to respond appropriately as it was taking place. We’ve seen the videos of the officers opening the security gates, and others of officers taking selfies with terrorists.
This doesn’t mean a bunch of strongly worded letters and tweets. It means investigations, charges, convictions, and jail time. There is no way forward without addressing what took place Tuesday with the strongest response possible. President-Elect Biden, and the 117th Congress have a duty to bring all perpetrators to justice, and this also includes expelling the Members of Congress who have supported Tr*mps rhetoric. They have shown us they have no real intention of serving their constituents or this country, but rather their own political ambitions.
The Big Picture 