Mao said “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.” A variant of a quote by Clausewitz is “War is merely the continuation of politics [policy] by other means.” But yesterday in the U. S., blood was shed. We have in DT’s USA, politics as civil war. After 4 years of him treating politics as a slow coup, as a way to seize power for himself alone, his words and actions descended into blatant incitement to violence and close to Civil War.

 

And this followed his phone call on January 2 where he threatened and tried to force Brad Raffensperger, the GOP Secretary of State of Georgia, to “find 11,780 votes.” In a manner demented by his total focus on himself alone, he continued to try to steal the election, by spouting again and again that the election was stolen from (not by) him.

 

Before Wednesday, DT urged people to come to Washington. Saying it was “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election,” riots were incited.

 

And then on Wednesday morning, he did it again. His lawyer, Giuliani, told the crowd, “Let’s have trial by combat.” DT then added “we are going to have to fight much harder.” He said, “We will never give up. We will never concede when there is theft involved.” He warned Vice President Pence to not allow Joe Biden to be certified as the winner of the election, despite all the facts pointing to that reality. He repeated a worn out claim with no basis in fact that Chinese Socialists were trying to take over the nation. He said he would be there with them.

 

But as they assaulted Capitol Hill, he was present only in memory, repeating his lies in their minds.

 

DT’s civil war is largely by white Christian nationalists who favor a dictatorship versus the rest of us.

 

4 people are dead. Not only those who assaulted the Capitol must be prosecuted. The law enforcement officers who somehow let these terrorists into the building to attack not just the building but stop members of Congress from doing their duty⎼ and their superiors, who either did not plan sufficiently or who did not immediately get reinforcements to the building⎼ those responsible must be prosecuted. Then there is Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and other Senators and House members who, even after this violence, still supported DT’s sedition.

 

And even after all this, DT continued to incite the destruction of our democracy by repeating his malicious lies or distortions. He told those who had stormed the capitol, “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long.”

 

We are in the middle of a pandemic that is killing almost 4,000 people a day. And all this President and his supporters can focus on is stealing power at any cost. This looks like deadly negligence to me.

 

The politics of grievance. The politics of hate. This is what it leads to. Isn’t threatening a public official, interfering in an election, sedition, negligence, incitement to riot crimes or impeachable offenses, and enough to get him immediately and legally thrown from office? Maybe invoke the 25^th amendment? Then it would be his own supporters who are seen as acting.

 

If this nation, if we let him go free, we permit the division and hate to continue. Who knows what he or his supporters might try next? But it must be done in a way that we don’t make him a martyr for hate. We don’t let him steal anymore headlines. Not only must he personally be discredited but his brand of politics.

 

And share this with Congress members. Call them. Tell them you’re glad they’re safe. Now, our nation must be made safe, from DT.

 

Please read Heather Cox Richardson for a more in-depth treatment of yesterday’s frightening events.

 

This post was syndicated by The Good Men Project.