Eleven of the January 6th insurrectionists are charged with sedition

Echo editorial opinion published in New Jersey NJ.com.

Opinion

The Former Trump speaks, and a democracy shudders | Editorial

Unfortunately, the former guy Trump held a rally to unleash his 2024, campaign strategy, which can be distilled to this: 

He is unabashedly pro-coup, and he is ready to take another crack at destroying Western democracy.

#TFG Trump admitted that he was scheming to overturn the 2020, election results.

His speech in Texas was another noxious stew of white grievance and cultish odium, but for the first time, the former president suggested that he will pardon the Capitol rioters if he returns to “the beautiful, beautiful house that happens to be white.”

It isn’t often that a former US president attempts to undermine a congressional inquiry and a federal investigation by pledging his support for criminals – including 11 charged with sedition -- and offers them impunity for advancing his political aims with a violent force that resulted in five dead cops and a democracy teetering.

But Trump’s 80-minute temper tantrum is also a reminder that ignoring him is no longer an option, and that this smoldering authoritarian crusade -- fueled by lies about a stolen election -- will go on for as long as it takes for him to be brought to justice.

That is clearly what worries him most, and as he hears bloodhounds in the distance, Trump is saying all the quiet stuff out loud again: If anyone tries to prosecute him for inciting a coup, he will try to incite a bigger one.

In fact, The Former Guy tRump urged his supporters to stage massive protests if prosecutors indict him, and while public assembly is an acceptable form of expression, it bears repeating that the last time he ordered people to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell,” thousands desecrated a government building and sent 140 police officers to the hospital.

And this call to arms was different: He called prosecutors investigating his actions “racist” and “mentally sick” and accused them of “prosecutorial misconduct at the highest level.” It just so happens that the three officials leading the major cases against him -- Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Jr., New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County (Ga.) DA Fani Willis -- happen to be Black.

It was an appeal to white solidarity, a racially motivated call to attack the rule of law: “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you,” Trump said, as he looked out on an audience dotted with Confederate flags.

And the weekend was still humming when Trump issued a statement in which he admitted that he asked then Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.

Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House January 6th Committee, summarizes the state of Trump: “He acknowledges that he was attempting to overthrow the election, he threatens prosecutors, he uses the same language that he knows caused the violence, and I think that it tells us he would clearly do this all again if he were given the chance,” she said.

“It’s very important for the American people to recognize what he says of his intentions, what his intentions were for January 6, and what he would do again if he got anywhere close to power.”

If Trump’s rhetoric sounds like the usual fire-ants-in-the-brain stuff, consider who is listening: A Republican candidate for state senate in Michigan told his followers that they should show up at the polls with their guns, and if he doesn’t win the election, to “be prepared to lock and load. . . .make sure justice prevails.” 

At the same gathering, a Republican candidate for governor told voters that “if you see something you don’t like happening with the machines, unplug it from the wall.”

That’s the state of the American democracy: It’s under the gun, ready to be unplugged on a whim. It’s being orchestrated by an increasingly unmoored man with a megaphone and a captive audience, spewing a torrent of lies. Tempting as it may be, this is not the time to stop paying attention.

NJ.com/Opinion.