This is what we have been reduced to: A violent mob. A nation on the brink of martial law. A populace under house arrest. A techno-corporate state wielding its power to immobilize huge swaths of the country. And a Constitution in tatters.
We are imploding on multiple fronts, all at once.
This is what happens when ego, greed and power are allowed to take precedence over liberty, equality and justice.
Just to be clear, however: this is not a revolution.
This is a ticking time bomb.
There is absolutely no excuse for the violence that took place at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Yet no matter which way you look at it, the fallout from this attempted coup could make this worrisome state of affairs even worse.
First, you've got the president, who has been accused of inciting a riot and now faces a second impeachment and a scandal that could permanently mar his legacy. At a minimum, Trump's actions and words, unstatesmanlike and reckless, by any standards over the course of his presidency and on Jan. 6 helped cause a simmering pot to boil over.
Second, there were the so-called "patriots" who took to the streets because the jailer of their choice didn't get chosen to knock heads for another four years. Those "Stop the Steal" protesters may have deluded themselves (or been deluded) into believing they were standing for freedom when they stormed the Capitol. However, there are limits to what can be done in the so-called name of liberty, and this level of violence,no matter who wields it or what brand of politics or zealotry motivate them, crossed the line.
Third, you've got the tech giants, who meted out their own version of social justice by way of digital tyranny and corporate censorship. Yet there can be no freedom of speech if social media giants can muzzle whomever they want, whenever they want, on whatever pretext they want in the absence of any real due process, review or appeal. At a minimum, we need more robust protections in place to protect digital expression and a formalized process for challenging digital censorship.
Fourth, you've got the police, who normally exceed the constitutional limits restraining them from brutality, surveillance and other excesses. Only this time, despite intelligence indicating that some of the rioters were planning for mayhem, police were outnumbered and ill prepared to deal with the incursion. Investigations underway suggest that some police may even have colluded with the rioters. All that was missing on Jan. 6 was a declaration of martial law.
Which brings us to the fifth point, martial law. Given that the nation has been dancing around the fringes of martial law with each national crisis, it won't take much more to push the country over the edge to a declaration and military lockdown. The rumblings of armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., will only serve to heighten tensions, double down on the government's military response, and light a match to a powder keg state of affairs.
So where do we go from here?
That all of these events are coming to a head around Martin Luther King Jr. Day is telling.
More than 50 years after King was assassinated, America has become a ticking time bomb of racial unrest and injustice, police militarization, surveillance, government corruption and ineptitude, the blowback from a battlefield mindset and endless wars abroad, and a growing economic inequality between the haves and have nots.
Making matters worse, modern America has compounded the evils of racism, materialism and militarism with ignorance, intolerance and fear.
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