“Coexistence is the only option.”
That is the title of an article in the January 20, 2021 edition of The Atlantic written by Anne Applebaum.
She makes the argument that coexistence must be established with a significant portion of the American population who either support or identify with the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
With all due respect to Ms. Applebaum, I disagree.
Law-abiding Americans (regardless of race, religion or political ideology) should never contemplate coexisting with insurrectionists demanding the lynching of a Vice-President and expressing the intent to execute the Speaker of the House live on social media.
I will not call the people in that mob Republicans. They are Trump supporters.
A dingbat real estate agent in Dallas said she was “glad” to be in the “mob” because it gave her a chance to witness “history.” She specifically added that “we are going down and storm the Capitol” She said she was acting in “solidarity” with Trump and was having “the time’” of her life.
There’s no “coexistence” with that kind of lunatic.
She can support Trump and sieg heil to the Proud Boys all she wants. That’s both her constitutional right and personal business.
But she has no place at the table with people who truly love this country with all its warts and who believe that social protest and civil disobedience enjoy First Amendment protections but who would never enjoy being with a murderous mob that left five people dead, dozens injured, scores indicted, social order seriously damaged, and the U.S. Capitol defiled.
And what about the sick pup walking through the Capitol Building with the treasonous Confederate flag over his shoulder?
I’m sure the black descendants of slaves would find it, at the very least, “difficult” to coexist with him.
The Confederate dude, the “Horned” screamer, the “Zip tie” guy, and the ones who killed the Capitol police officer and assaulted others believed they were “following orders” or heeding “instructions” given to them by their former president—the same guy who said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still be loved for it—and they also believed that they should have gotten a “pardon” from their leader before he skedaddled out of town with the long arm of the law on his heels.
If it is your personal, social or political preference to coexist with these folks, feel free to do so – that is your right, just as it is your right to jump from the Grand Canyon without a parachute because the History Channel Moonshiners said you could fly.
Not me. No sir. No way.
People who storm the U.S. Capitol to lynch the Vice President and assassinate the Speaker of the House cannot coexist on my land. That “no trespass” sign on my driveway gate is there for them.