Brunswick Beacon, 01.04.24
Poet W.B. Yeats said civilization "fell apart" and the "anarchy" of WWI was “loosed upon the world” because “twenty centuries” brought not Christ’s return, but the anti-Christ’s: a "rough beast…gaze blank and pitiless as the sun…slouching toward Bethlehem to be born." As Donald Trump slouches toward the Republican convention to be nominated, Yeats’ “The Second Coming” seems prophetic.
The "center [could not] hold" when Republicans rejected the 2020 election results. The “blood-dimmed tide” was loosed when Trump’s mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. The “ceremony of innocence [was] drowned” when violence disrupted the peaceful transfer of power.
The worst were “full of passionate intensity” when they bludgeoned police and screamed “hang Mike Pence.” After the attack “the best lack[ed] all conviction” when 147 Republicans, including our Representative, David Rouzer, voted to overturn the 2020 election and Republican leaders failed to hold Trump accountable for inciting mob violence.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility for [the] attack on Congress by mob rioters” — then denounced Trump’s impeachment. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell pronounced Trump “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the attack — then acquitted him.
Former House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, the only Republican leader to oppose Trump, says Congressional Republicans were “co-opted” by “the lure of power.” Cheney calls Trump the “single most dangerous threat we face.” She says Trump, if elected, “will never leave office again.” She warns Americans to “ignore partisan politics” and unite to stop Trump’s threat to Democracy. Cheney fears Americans have become “numb” to Trump’s outrages and are “sleepwalking into dictatorship.”
Trump’s second coming, she warns, will bring fascism: “He’s told us what he’ll do.” Trump threatens to “terminate” the Constitution, “lock up” opponents (whom he calls “vermin”) and prosecute news outlets that criticize him. “The tools he’s using are tools used by authoritarians, fascists, tyrants around the world,” warns Cheney.
If America is slouching toward fascism, don’t say you weren’t warned.
Vince Amoroso
Sunset Beach