The United States of America is a domestic violence situation

The United States of America is a domestic violence situation

A few days ago a rally of Trump supporters became a mob. Trump supporters believed the election was stolen. Trump has taken every legal resource there is to challenge the election and all his challenges were thrown out of court because there was no credible evidence to support even the suspicion of fraud on a scale that would’ve come close to tipping the electoral count.

Trump has always claimed he won the popular vote in 2016. He didn’t. The Republican regime had four years to do voter reform and used the time to gerrymander and suppress votes while hyping the lie that voter fraud was a serious issue. Republican judges, Republican Senate, Republican Executive branch were unable to find evidence of voter fraud. Mitch McConnell stated this on the Senate floor last week.

They did find a great deal of evidence that Russia had interfered with the election, not only by hacking Clinton’s email, but by an intense disinformation attack through social media. It is amazing how easily both Democrats and Republicans fall for fake information weaponized to create discord among Americans. Trump’s political career began with the claim that Obama was not born in the United States. He said he had investigators in Hawaii who would find evidence that Obama was really born in Kenya. This wasn’t true, but there are still people who believe it, and now they believe the 2020 election was stolen from them. There is no evidence, but they believe.

Our family admired Billy Graham. In his later years Billy Graham seemed to embrace a universalist faith and an openness to Muslims, for instance. His son, who took over the family business, is another matter. After 9/11 Franklin found a market niche for preachers of hate against Muslims, as well as intolerance for people who don’t at least pretend to be heterosexual. Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Junior, another preacher’s kid, made a killing selling their Hate Christ to struggling working people whose needs have been neglected by both parties for decades. People whose backs are against the wall, or who think their backs are against the wall, are susceptible to demagogues who manipulate their rage

Donald Trump is the Hate Christ anointed by rightwing televangelists who preached that Trump came to save the unborn and the State of Israel. He promised to make America great again by making the televangelist cult the state religion, by building a wall and putting children in cages and, above all, protecting the Second Amendment, and the profits of gun manufacturers. The preachers had convinced their followers that Democrats would take their guns away. They convinced too many of their armed followers that Democrats are a satanic army that will enslave them.

A few days ago, the rally to support Trump, became a call to combat the alleged theft of the American election. Trump and Rudy Ghouliani claimed this theft was happening inside the Capitol at that moment, when Congress was diligently following Constitutional guidelines for the transference of power to a new administration.

Donald Trump incited an insurrection with a massive disinformation campaign through social media and TV exposure on all networks. He created a political movement out of internet rumors. A significant part of America has been neglected by our government and cheated by our economic system. Trump said he was listening to them and he would help them and he would make America great again and would give them something to take pride in. He told his followers that their real enemy was in the Capitol destroying their last hope. No wonder they broke down the doors. Donald Trump planned and incited an insurrection.

I know that many people still believe Trump and still believe an armed revolution is inevitable. These people are armed to protect their families and to prevent tyranny and to kill Americans they don’t like. Some of them talk about a civil war

I don’t know how many people in the military or in police departments, or who are just heavily armed civilians, believe they have to fight a civil war right now, but January 6, 2021 was a demonstration of their fury and of the insanity of the Trump movement.

Right now we all need to study and practice nonviolent conflict resolution and treat this national emergency as a domestic violence situation. These national conflicts manifest themselves as domestic conflict. And there are weapons in the house. We need everyone to put their guns down.

We need to be able to trust our brothers and sisters.

The United States of America is a domestic violence situation and it always has been. We need to come to terms with ourselves and we need to pray for ourselves, pray to whatever is within your soul as your transcendent source or reference point, and face your self. 

I need to face my self.