On turning the other cheek

Unity, noun, the state of being united or joined as a whole. Less than a week after a failed attempt at a coup, the GOP is now calling for unity. Like a concerted and years long effort to overtake the government was some accident and we should just forgive and forget. I mean let the person who hasn’t tried to overthrow the government throw the first stone! No? Anybody?

When the Black Lives Matter movement kicked off in full last year the body count was already high. Just in the last decade we could fill this post with the names of Black people who were unarmed and murdered in cold blood by police. Yet when the anger boils over so much that a target gets destroyed people swiftly condemned the movement as a whole and started not one, but TWO separate white supremacist groups to counter the movement.

When 9/11 happened we championed the phrase never forget! We plaster it on walls with flags and eagles and pictures of the towers. Damn, just thinking about it makes my eyes want to release some freedom juice. It’s so damn beautiful. But seriously, we literally kicked off an entire war, toppled a government, killed a dictator (one that arguably deserved to die, granted), and are still, like the patriots we are, taking off our shoes at airports because this is America and in America we wear socks… or something like that.

Yet less than a week after several white supremacist groups joined forces under Trump to overtake the government, the GOP is calling on Biden and company to forgive, forget, and move on. Because nothing says healing like hugging it out with the people who were literally trying to kill you the week before! I mean if the GOP had any resemblance of a spine they would still all be jellyfish. They’re more concerned about power than anything else and if this past week has shown anything it’s that the people calling for unity after such a horrific event are only doing so because they themselves are responsible for what happened.

Maybe we should lease the capitol building to target, it seems then people would’ve been more upset. Of course if we look beyond the where and look at the who it becomes perfectly clear why the GOP was more upset about the target than the capitol building. We had a congresswoman live-tweeting the location of Pelosi as the white supremacists stormed the capitol (read more). It’s not like that was an accident, especially not after her earlier tweets encouraging the coup.

Actions have consequences, the people in power wanted to stay in power so they helped organize the coup and should be held accountable. We shouldn’t forgive and move on like this didn’t happen or that it wasn’t a big deal because “only” a handful of people died. Things could’ve been so much worse and unless the people responsible are held accountable things will only get worse when they try again.