SAN JOSE, Calif. – On January 6th, 2021, the new American patriots descended upon Washington, D.C. with the goal of, “taking back our country.”
The crowd dressed in flak jackets, wore gas masks, and donned military helmets in protection of the anticipated violence and potential revolution. Their identity as Americans had been attacked. They were told “the American Dream was dead,” and that foreign countries and big business were trying to undermine their way of life and replace them with violent immigrants, “some of which were probably good people,” Trump once sold to his potential buyers.
At the steps of the Capitol Building on January 6th, a man said, “Trump wanted wild, he got wild.” The video was subsequently posted to parler.com and later aggregated by propublic.org.
Another young man stood at the base of a monument surrounded by his peers and protectors. He said, “And I hope bloodlessly but either way, this American Revolution is going to take place. Because our country, our sovereignty has been stolen from us.”
Soon thereafter, the crowd broke several doors and windows on the Capitol Building eventually gaining access and occupying the building.
Earlier that morning, then President Trump gave a speech to his followers. In that speech, Trump told his supporters they, “had to fight like hell” or they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.” “So together,” Trump told his supporters, they would “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” to drain the swamp and straighten the Democrats out.
This was nothing new. For almost five years, Trump manipulated his base by telling them: Our military is weak, murderers and rapists are illegally coming into the country, all the jobs are in China and Mexico, the world is laughing at the US, our politicians lie, and unfortunately the American dream is dead.”
For many people, Trump’s rhetoric touched deep emotional chords. If one believes they don’t have economic opportunities, foreigners are invading their country, and their military and police are unable to protect them, the duty falls upon the American individual to protect themselves and the Democracy in which they live.
Because Trump and his political planners were able to successfully carry-out a propaganda campaign against the American public, there were many several hundred thousands of people that bought Trump’s sales pitch, hook-line-and-sinker. Fortunately, the attempted January Revolution of 2021 failed and Democracy stood strong.
In an follow-up article, we will examine a Trump speech where he used the office of the President of the United States to validate his questionable policies and culture building.
Some material and content courtesy of www.propublica.org, www.npr.org, www.time.com, and Google images.
