The Attack on the Capitol by Trump’s Mob of Cultists Was Totally Predictable

“Shocked?”

“Surprised?”

“Unbelievable?”

“Unexpected?”

“Improbable?”

The attack on the Capitol by a cultist mob was none of these. If you experienced any of these thoughts, I am sorry to inform that you don’t have a firm grip on the reality of American politics of today… or any time in the past.

This was nothing if not par for the course for American conservatism.

Perhaps our education is to blame. The history books we are given as students are largely boring white-washes of what actually happened, chapters about the causes of wars (from a “patriotic” perspective) and droll paragraphs about arcane governmental policies, punctuated by snippets of a soaring speech here and there. What is often missing in these textbooks, meant to foment conformity and productivity, are details of the atrocities that have transpired, non-stop, since the founding of this nation. We are educated to believe that American history is a whole lot more wholesome than it actually was.

Something very important, perhaps the most important, has been censored from this telling our national tale. One dynamic has run through the entirety of American history: the original liberating impulse vs. the thwarting of that impulse. Personalities come and go. Policies come and go. Parties change — sometimes dramatically — the Democrat and Republican parties of today are ideologically almost the opposite of what they started out as. What does not change — EVER — is that dynamic: liberals vs. conservatives.

The highest peaks of Americanism — defined as expanding liberty, equality and justice FOR ALL CITIZENS — have been reached by liberals. That’s just a plain, irrefutable, fact. And that includes the founding of the nation, which was opposed, viciously, by conservatives, the Tories, who spilled patriot blood. That conservatives would ever deign to proclaim themselves the “true patriots,” the “real Americans,” is patently absurd. Conservatives not only opposed the founding of the nation, they have opposed every stitch of progress since. If you are not white, male, Protestant and rich… YOUR RIGHTS have been opposed by conservatives at some point in American history.

But that’s not half the bad story. Conservatives are at the epi-center of EVERY SINGLE major. scandal and tragedy in American history! Note the word “major.” Blow jobs in the Oval Office do not count. But hanging “witches” does. Supporting slavery does. Genocide and culturecide against Native Americans does. Opposing public education does. Starting a Civil War does. Promoting the Gilded Age does. Opposing labor unions does. Opposing helping our allies in World War I does. Opposing women’s suffrage does. A decades-long lynching spree does. Prohibition does. Teapot Dome does. Causing the Great Depression does. Opposing Social Security does. Opposing helping our allies in World War II does. A modern witch-hunt for “communists” under every bed in America does. Interfering in an American war to help your election chances does. Urging the FBI to go after your political opponents does. Signing off on the burglary of the headquarters of the opposite political party does. Conducting a secret war in Central American does. Secretly selling arms to an adversary to finance your secret war does. Running drugs across the border to finance your secret war does. Causing the Savings & Loan crisis does. Ballooning the National Debt does. Lying us into twin wars of bad choice does. Torturing prisoners does. Causing the Great Recession does.

These are some of American Conservatism’s Greatest Hits. And we haven’t even listed any of Trump’s many, many, many scandals and transgressions against democracy, common sense and basic morality. Through that same 240-something year parade of history, there is nothing — nada, zero — from the liberal side that would rate as equivalent transgressions of American values.

The point is, yesterday’s storming of the Capitol by conservative thugs is totally, completely, on brand for conservatism. It is true that American conservatives haven’t done this exact thing before. So give them a few points for creativity — a rarity for conservatives. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it was a very minor episode in the long, long history of conservative tragedies. Only five persons were killed. Conservatism caused an estimated 640,000 deaths in the Civil War. And conservative ignorance and selfishness has, so far, killed nearly 400,000 citizens through this current Covid-19 pandemic, which our conservative leaders have refused to coherently control.

The Capitol storming by Trump’s cultists has been decades in the making. And they have made no secret about it. Doing something to poke the hated government in the eye is a dream many of them held dear, from long before Trump came along. But Trump was the champion they needed to pull it off, someone who might not just condone but approve of the daring, “patriotic,” deed. The more militant cultists sensed a green light flashing from this upstart reality TV star turned politician when Trump warned us in 2016 that he would not accept an election defeat… any election defeat. And everyone should have seen this coming a mile away. He told us just last week he was going to hold this rally on this day, while the certification of Biden’s electoral victory was being certified. He has spent years riling up his base, filling his followers with disinformation, frustration, resentment, anger and hate. He called them forth, he gave them their marching orders to the Capitol, and he sat back and watched what transpired.

What would have been shocking, surprising, unbelievable, unexpected, improbable is if his mob of thugs had never gone rogue. It was just a matter of time. Yesterday was the time. If we are wise we will take it as a sharp warning. If conservatism isn’t tamed, shamed, ridiculed and discredited — as it so fully deserves — worse, much worse is coming!