Rioters stormed the US Capitol this afternoon, forcing a joint session of Congress to evacuate to safer quarters just as the counting of votes from the Electoral College from the several states was getting under way.
The protest started peacefully after President Donald Trump made a speech down the road at the White House, but it turned violent as an insurgent mob violated police lines and trespassed on the US Capitol, including on the Senate floor.
The president released a video after the uprising, urging protesters to “go home” but telling them that he loved them.
Editorial
Courts in several states haven’t found actual evidence of widespread election fraud on a scale that would overturn Joe Biden’s victory in any contested state, but that hasn’t stopped the Trump campaign from filing more than four dozen lawsuits in a failed attempt to overturn the voice of the American people.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the current majority leader in the US Senate and a long-term Republican senator from Kentucky, said on the floor of the joint session, “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
In the history of the United States, we have seen bitter divisions in the 1850s, which led to our Civil War. Those differences were over slavery, and the southern states were on the wrong side of history because they were oppressing slaves.
This time around, I’m really not sure what the insurrection is over.
Is it over objections not being heard? (More than 100 members of Congress said they would object to the counting in certain states.) But I hope that’s not what it’s about, because the courts have heard several dozen allegations. They have considered them under our laws, and they have dismissed most of them. The ones that went through were insufficient to overturn the results of the election in any state.
Is it over the right of President Trump to remain in power? I hope not, because he has no such right. Joe Biden won the election, and now it’s time to make way for a peaceful transition of power.
Is it about some conservative moral conviction? I hope not, because violence isn’t the way to convince people your way is best. Furthermore, this nation is pretty much split down the middle, with the majority of people somewhere very close to the middle. But we’re exhausted and fatigued. Conservative views will be very well represented in this nation going forward, as will those of more liberal people.
I just can’t figure out what we’re actually rioting about at this point or how it has come this far. We will report no school news today. Be at peace, and stay well.
