TRUMP SUPPORTERS BECOME INSURRECTIONISTS: SOMETHING MUST BE DONE

U.S. RESIST EDITORIAL
January 8, 2021

TRUMP SUPPORTERS BECOME INSURRECTIONISTS: SOMETHING MUST BE DONE

On Wednesday of this week a mob of Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol wearing MAGA hats and waving Confederate flags. They desecrated the Senate chambers, took over offices of members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi, broke windows, smashed furnishings, and overran the Capitol police. Their actions were inspired by conspiracy-driven words of President Trump, on Twitter for the past several months and at a kickoff rally on the Washington Mall.  Trump has been falsely insisting that the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen from him and urging his supporters to “stop the steal.”

Commentators have called this an “attempted coup, “an “insurrection “and a “dark day in American history”, all of which are true; but the question before us now is what are we going to do about it? We cannot let this attack on our democracy continue. We do not want to go through 4 years of Trump rallying his followers to take similar seditious actions and delegitimize our electoral process. We cannot let the country fall apart because of the ego and misguided psychological makeup of a man who cannot admit that he lost an election.

U.S. RESIST NEWS recommends that the following actions be taken:

1. A High-Level Bi-Partisan Commission should be established to make recommendations for ensuring the integrity of our electoral system going forward, and considering the possibility of getting rid of the electoral college..
2. The FBI should undertake an investigation into the January 7^th protests with the ability to prosecute wrong doers.
3. The effort to track and prosecute home-grown white nationalist terrorism should be given highest priority.
4. Any effort by President Trump to pardon himself should be legally challenged by the new Attorney General.
5. State level efforts to prosecute President Trump for his attempt to change the vote-tally in Georgia should be implemented.
6. Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites should take down any tweets or posts from President Trump, Rudy Giuliani and others that claim the election was stolen. (Notably Facebook has recently banned Trump from posting on their platform.)
7. Efforts by New York State and other local authorities to prosecute crimes committed by President Trump should be accelerated.
8. Congress should consider impeaching President Trump and barring him from future office-holding because of his role in instigating the January 6^th break in.
9. Republican lawmakers should review the leadership of the Republican National Committee (RNC) to ensure that Mr. Trump has no role with the RNC once he leaves office. This will help to ensure that his rhetoric and ideals become separate from future Republican policies. The RNC can still be the RNC but with less “Trumpism” in the policies they stand for.

We realize there are risks involved in taking these actions; that they may further polarize our political environment and make Trump appear as a martyr to his followers.. But to do nothing at this point would be a greater risk. We would be turning our back on injustice, and the criminal and seditious acts committed by President Trump and his followers over the past 4 years and allowing them to continue.