Don't Be Afraid, Be Ready

Apocalyptic analyses and sweeping historical comparisons dominate the news now. The desecration of the US Capitol is compared with the British burning of the White House in the War of 1812 and the first shot at Fort Sumter, and if you want to go international, the fire at the German Reichstag in the Nazi era. To me, the assault on the Capitol smacked more of the angry mobs of the French and Russian revolutions. Until recently, I used to encounter the word  “sedition” only in history books. Now we’re hearing it a dozen times a day.

There are demands to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President for inciting the mob or even impeach him. Other heads are already rolling, to use a reference from the aforementioned French Revolution, following an egregious security failure which may even have been deliberate in some respects.

The thing that offends me most about this debacle is that we don’t have the time for any of this right now. There is a pandemic out there killing people and destroying the economy. The angry mob that invaded the Capitol - and some of the legislators doing business inside it - wasted precious time. Those legislators who tried to impede the certification of the November election will pay a political price. The violent invaders who can be identified must be forced to pay theirs. I bet some of them were carrying COVID too. The Capitol building needs disinfecting, physically, politically, and maybe even spiritually.

Our most dramatic scenarios now include a possible second Civil War. While I don’t think our President-elect needs to address that out loud, I do think he has to be prepared for it. Most important, he has to communicate through his demeanor and tone that he is not afraid of it and that he will respond if necessary, swiftly and effectively.

If there are folks out there who really are thinking about mounting a new Civil War, I would suggest that they be careful what they wish for. They would do well to open their own history books and consider how the last one came out.