A historic national embarrassment like the one that transpired this Wednesday did not happen by accident.  It required the concerted, determined, methodical effort of a host of different actors: the domestic terrorists who willfully and mightily ignore fact to fuel their fiction; the Capitol and DC Police whose lack of imagination and familiarity with white nationalist vigilantes abetted this invasion; and the craven, base, narcissistic politicians whose bald self-interest fed lies and invited sedition.  All of these groups of people, in their own right, have dutifully and undoubtedly earned the title of traitor.

The path of those sad, deluded crackpots to the Capitol represents a long and twisted road.  These travelers were picked up by the politicians who found their fear and hatred so useful, aided and even abetted by police forces only too happy to turn a blind eye, and fueled by the distortion of far-right media outlets.  They are fully immersed in their own alternate reality.  A reality in which, apparently, there was a nation-wide conspiracy across numerous independent state electoral commissions to defraud Donald Trump.  This widescale fraud enabled the millions of illicit votes by which Joe Biden was able to win and thus steal the election from the true patriots and defenders of our finest traditions of white supremacy and mob rule.

No amount of facts or proof will convince these people; they are immune to evidence.  No amount of court verdicts will satisfy their complaints of widespread collusion and voter fraud; they are allergic to our institutions and the safeguards they provide.  No appeal to logic or reason will suffice; these aren’t the brightest bulbs in the bunch—when no one would have questioned these outlaws for wearing masks while committing federal crimes on public property, they stubbornly refused to hide their identities, enraged as they were by the indignation of having to protect their fellow citizens or even themselves from a pandemic ravaging the nation.  On the positive side, at least it’s making it easier for federal law enforcement to track down these geniuses.  Make no mistake, these nincompoops acted of their own free will.  But they were also enabled by a far-right media unaccountable to facts or reality and certain self-serving, shameful members of the Republican Party.  And because of the confluence of these bad actors, five people are dead, the physical symbol of our democracy was despoiled, and the decay of our republic was on full display for the world to see.

These domestic terrorists, however, don’t get to Speaker Pelosi’s office with a lot of help.  I’m not going to delve into speculation, which should not necessarily be dismissed, that members of this mob received instructions or even maps about how to enter and navigate the Capitol.  But it is clear that law enforcement, be it the Capitol Police or even the DC Police, took a decidedly more benign and passive approach to these “protestors” than they did for the various Black Lives Matter protests which occurred in the months prior.  The physical police presence, the weapons that were deployed, and the aggressiveness of those forces all stood in marked contrast.  Peaceful BLM protestors faced huge numbers of police in full riot gear, armed with rubber bullets, water cannons, and tear gas, and seemingly ready and willing to deploy these tools at the slightest provocation.  In stunning contrast, the heavily-armed domestic terrorists who descended upon the Capitol this week were coddled, enabled, and even encouraged.  Meeting this band of lunatics with a paltry police presence invited violent action.  The lack of imagination it took on behalf of the police administration to see what had happened at the Michigan statehouse (and other seats of government) and not see the very real possibility of breach or invasion of federal buildings, no less the seat of government itself, is fairly appalling and grossly incompetent.  The authorities consistently underestimate the actions of right-wing terrorists precisely because they don’t see them as a true threat in the way they do Black and Brown people.  Law enforcement (speaking broadly and generalizing) often see their own in those airing white grievance.  They see allies.  And allies step aside.  Allies aid.  Allies pour water in the eyes of tear-gassed terrorists.  The Capitol and DC Police are culpable, one might even say complicit, in the breach because they simply couldn’t see it coming.  And these blinders they wear, they are of their own making.  These institutions failed in their duty because they could not perceive the true danger that existed while as they were simultaneously obsessed with a chimeric threat that never really existed.

And finally, to our resolute, stalwart Republican defenders of the American way, the propagators of tall tales of widespread electoral fraud, and the enablers of the lunatic fringe: we see you for who you are.  You are self-serving.  You are craven.  You are duplicitous.  You are dangerous.  You are traitors to the republic and to the oath you swore.  You knowingly lied about voter fraud where no substantial proof existed.  You nakedly used this opportunity to push your own prestige or promote your own presidential ambitions.  You gave legitimate political cover to Trump’s illegitimate claims and outright lies.  We will not forget.  Your names have been marked and will go into the history books alongside their kin: Arnold, Rosenburg, McCarthy, Hanssen, Hawley, Cruz, Tuberville, Scott, Marshall, Kennedy, Hyde-Smith, Lummis.  And over half of the Republican members of the House of Representatives.  We all expect this of someone of Trump’s disgraceful character; we expected better of you.  You all knew better.  You all had access to the data, the real facts, the hard truths that you refused to tell your supporters: that they legitimately lost a hard-fought battle and should re-group to fight another day.  No, you ignored the principles of democracy—the peaceful transition of power in the face of electoral loss and the responsibilities incumbent upon a loyal opposition—to stoke fear and mistrust in our institutions.  And so you also bear the guilt and the blame for the invasion of our Capitol.  You will be marked with scarlet Ts in the textbooks as traitors for all American students of history to see.  You have brought shame on our republic; and shame is the legacy you have rightly earned.

The true problem, as I believe most of us appreciate, is not the invasion of the Capitol.  It’s not a face-painted simpleton in a bison bikini.  These are mere symptoms of the graver disease.  It is the rot at the heart of our democracy when our politicians prefer to peddle lies than accept hard truths.  It is the corruption and complicity among some elements of our nation’s law enforcement in aiding and abetting white nationalists or stepping aside when teenagers show up to “defend local businesses” armed with AR-15s.  It is with the members of a disloyal opposition party, approximately half of whom apparently believe that the actions of these domestic terrorists were somehow justified.  We need a loyal, viable, sane opposition party; sadly, we currently have a hollowed-out party infested by traitors.  It is not unredeemable.  But those truly patriotic Republicans need to fight harder for the soul of their party.  They need to purge it of its unworthy, despicable, hate-filled elements.  And reclaim the mantle of a party which once stood for democracy, American exceptionalism, and the defense of personal liberties.

We must reform our police forces, purging elements that are sympathetic to white nationalism and domestic terrorism.  There are some great cops out there; I’m lucky to count some of them as my friends.  We need to embolden and empower the good ones to reform, reconstitute, and demilitarize their police forces.  So that the police can once again delineate true threats—armed insurrectionists—from peaceful protestors.

And finally, we need to call it like it is.  We need to stop calling thugs and hoodlums protestors.  And we need to stop calling peaceful protestors thugs and criminals and treating them as such.  Judge people by their actions and call them by their names.  To those who would violate our sacred spaces.  Who would stand by while it was happening.  Who would encourage violence from their pulpits.  You are traitors to the republic.  Traitors to our sacred democratic traditions.  Traitors to America.  We see you.  We know who you are.  And we call you by your name.