January 2021

I have worked in countries where parliaments have been overrun, but I never thought it would happen in the U.S. And here we are, two days after pro-Trump hooligans assaulted the Capitol. The problem in the U.S. today is certainly Donald Trump and the radical fringe devoted to him and ready to carry out his authoritarian and undemocratic bidding. But it’s also those American citizens who cast a ballot for Trump two months ago.

As for Trump, he’s truly the emperor with no clothes now.  He incited the hooligans by trafficking in lies and praised them after the assault. He’s discredited in front of the world and will soon be without the bully pulpit that he so brazenly misused for personal ends for four years. My hope is he slides into obscurity, discarded by the Republican Party and confined to some ridiculous, meaningless reality show that nobody watches, no matter how much money he has.

My issue is with those who voted for Trump in November 2020. You have a civic duty to own up to voting for him just as I feel I have civic duty to call you do this. You have a civic duty to repudiate him and his law-breaking followers. Repudiate them both.  Call for their prosecution for insurrection. Call on Trump to resign.  Disavow Trump’s fringe supporters whose appearance in public has somehow been normalized over the past four years. Relegate this political cancer — the spewing of divisiveness and conspiracy theories; disrespect for American democracy; and incitement to violence against her institutions — to the narrow halls of talk radio and reality shows. Do not allow it to be force-fed to America! This is not building a more perfect union but undermining it. Vigorously oppose  this agenda. We are called to take a civic position at this juncture in American history. This is mine. What is yours?

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