And what should we do about them?
At the center, of course, was Donald Trump. Most visible were the Capitol rioters, with the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys gangs the most visible of them.
But they weren’t alone. The attempted coup also involved numerous “Republican officials, right-wing paramilitaries, media propagandists, private funders, interest groups, [and] think tanks,” a Salon article says (here).
In addition, that article suggests, “the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and other law enforcement and national security agencies” and “some individuals at the highest levels of the federal government” looked the other way.
Today, nearly the entire Republican Party is looking the other way. Not a few Republican officials, candidates, and operatives are still at it.
If we truly believe in the rule of law, and want to preserve it, all of these people — or as many as possible — should be prosecuted if they broke laws. Defending the constitutional order by enforcing laws through the courts is how we can defend democracy and keep the crescendo of Republican lawbreaking, sedition, and violence from rising to the level of the “civil war” they talk about. For example, the way you defang the armed militias is by jailing their leaders.
In the Salon article Glenn Kirschner, a former military and federal prosecutor (profile here), decries the fact DOJ is only prosecuting Trump’s “foot soldiers” and they’re going to prison while he plays golf. He favors prosecuting Trump and believes a D.C. jury would “very quickly” convict him, as the evidence that he committed crimes is “overwhelming.” But he wonders if DOJ has the will to do it, and doubts our country “has the courage” to put an ex-president in prison.
But if Trump is a criminal, and is found guilty, why not? Kirschner dismisses fears of violence, calling Trump’s supporters gutless. He’s probably right on that score; from what we’ve seen, they’re brave only when they can hide in a mob’s faceless numbers. We’re seeing the boldest of them, the Capitol attackers, turn into whimpering mice when brought individually before judges. If they saw their leader and messiah dragged into court and jailed, too, I think that would be more dispiriting than galvanizing.
I’m not offering this as an analogy, and as such it’s a disjointed one, but history reflects certain commonalities in human nature: When Hitler died the war ended and the Nazi movement evaporated within days. Defeated by greater powers, its leader and messiah gone, the followers simply drifted away.
Trumpism, too, might be short-lived if greater powers — prosecutors, courts, and rule of law — overcome its criminal aspects and actors. With those gone, what’s left would be nothing to worry about.