Redcoats and Brownshirts
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Our U.S. Capitol has been invaded before. In 1814, British troops marched into a largely undefended Washington and set fire to the Capitol, White House, the Treasury building and several other sites. President Madison and all other leaders were forced out of the city.
This set the stage for future national tragedies, including Pearl Harbor and 9/11, with foreigners horrifying Americans by doing damage on Americans and American properties.
What makes today different is that the damage done to the Capitol this time was not authorized by foreign interests, but by our own President. The terrorists were egged on by the same government they pretended to protest. A short time earlier, Trump stood on a podium and told the crowd, “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
Previously, on the same stage, his odious son, Don Jr., warned wavering Republicans in Congress, “we’re coming for you!” And deluded comic sidekick Rudy Giuliani instructed that it was time for, “trial by conflict.” In any dictatorship, those are obvious marching orders. So march—and destroy--they did.
Long before Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany, the armed radicals who would come to be known as his “storm troops”, his “brownshirts”, had already formed. Hitler realized their value, and warmly embraced him. They grew to an armed force of some three million men, and were unleashed to terrorize designated businesses and civilians. They were instrumental in beginning the shipment of Jews to the concentration camps. Hitler understood the value of an unleashed and fully armed horde, acting on his behalf.
That was a different thing. It was citizen against citizen. The threat came from within. One group used brute force. The other could only flinch.
In the end, both the redcoats and the brownshirts disappeared.
In the case of the British, a couple days after setting fire to D.C., as the flames continued, a torrential storm (quite likely a hurricane) struck Washington. It not only put out the fires, but also did serious damage to the English ships moored on the Potomac. The soldiers were recalled to perform the necessary repairs on the ships, and the English decided, “what the hell. This place is trashed—let’s go.”
In Germany, Hitler grew wary of their size and might of the brownshirts, and became convinced by rival officers that they were out to get him. So he got them first. In the “Night of the Long Knives”, as many as 150 SA leaders were rounded up and executed.
We don’t seem to have either of those options now. Even if there were violent weather bearing down on D.C., the protestors will disappear and will take their prejudices and their vendettas back home.
Unlike Hitler, Trump will never turn on them—they’re his only source of power. After the riot, when he finally spoke, he told them, “we love you!” Yes, Trump will be gone, but he will never see what the rest of us do—the dire threat this poses to our 245-year-old experiment in democracy.
We survived the burning of Washington…as well as the horrors of Pearl Harbor and 9/11…because we came together to act against terrorists—not to tell them, “we love you!”
Do we have the means, and the intent, to fight the terrorists now?
There are outright traitors like Cruz and Nunes and Graham. There are four-year enablers like Pence and McConnell and hundreds of others who decided it was worth accepting consistent blunt traumas to democracy in order to serve their own selfish needs. When Congress reconvened, McConnell stood and promised, “criminal behavior will never dominate the work of the United States Congress.” This from the same man who’s blocked the proper work of Congress for his entire leadership.
Do we have the intent to fight?
Yes, Trump is on his way out the White House door. But he’s giving up nothing. They and his cult anarchists stand defiant. Even now, too many Republicans can’t accept that the mob will eventually turn on them.
Joe, I know you’ve got a hundred messes to clean up. But nothing will matter if we can’t clean up this one.
Metaphorically speaking, it’s time to wield our own long knives of justice against the mob.
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