What happened last week on Capitol Hill was a riot. Our own Julio Rosas was there. He got the footage. Congress was in session to certify the 2020 Electoral College results. Pro-Trump supporters came to DC for the "Save America" rally. And then mayhem ensued. After the rally, these supporters stormed the US Capitol, overwhelmed Capitol Police, and entered the building. They got into the Senate chamber. They entered congressional offices, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's. Five people were killed in the mayhem, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and Air Force veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt.
It isn’t good. I’m sorry. I don’t condone this act at all. This isn’t how we settle our differences. Second, what did this accomplish but an all-out assault on free speech rights across multiple platforms? If conservatives had grievances with social media (and they do), well, what happened last week will make those complaints look like child’s play after Big Tech is through with conservative America. The problem is that they see all of us as the rioters on the Hill. There is no nuance. In 2010, it was no different. Any Tea Party supporter was a racist and a potential domestic terrorist — a Nazi as well. All the Tea Party wanted was smaller government, fewer taxes, and fewer regulations. Somehow, that’s akin to National Socialism. The point is that the media is about to go on an all-out character assault on any Trump supporter, including those who condemned the rioters, this act, and who would not have taken part in any of this chaos.
At the same time, you can’t be shocked that this happened. The neo-populist upswell started with the Tea Party and has reached its maximum pitch under Trump. And it’s not just right-wing populism, folks. The left-wing has its populist-ish icons on the Hill as well. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and "The Squad" make up the starting lineup for the Left. Granted, they’re more socialist, but they rail against the elites in their own right. We’ve seen failure after failure in the Capitol Building on a grand scale. We have wars we put on the credit card and regulations that killed jobs, especially in rural America under Obama and his persecution of coal. Nothing seems to get done overall. In 2020, we had scores of politicians, including Trump, back lockdowns, even in areas not impacted by the virus (though they are now). People’s lives were torched. Trump’s move on this was undoubtedly motivated by the markets, which were sent into a downward spiral by their pervasive hysteria. Russian collusion didn’t stick, but weaponizing a virus for political gain did. By the results of the 2020 election, the media did their job for their Democratic allies.
Families were suffering. Democrats blocked future COVID relief packages; Pelosi did a number on working-class Americans. It’s no secret why Democrats wanted to better Biden’s 2020 chances. After the election, COVID relief became a bipartisan trainwreck when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to die on the hill of $2,000 relief checks amid a critical Senate runoff in Georgia. So, after months of treading water, suffering under the economic pinch due to the COVID lockdowns, the political class decided to hold things up because…the checks were too big.
When you’re desperate, have a family to support, and see what these clowns were doing on the Hill after your job or business vanished into oblivion, you’d probably have a "burn it all down" mentality. I get it. I may disagree strongly — but I’m not shocked that this fury was unleashed, especially after a contentious election where numerous voter fraud allegations were lobbed. It was a toxic cocktail that exploded like Chernobyl’s fourth reactor.
To make things more radioactive, we have the self-righteous, elitist, and condescending liberal media establishment going way over the top in analyzing what happened. Was the riot on the Hill indefensible? Yes — but this wasn’t the 9/11 terror attacks. This isn’t the Cuban Missile Crisis. Enough. And these people condoned or endorsed the leftist violence that engulfed the cities last summer, the most destructive riots in American history. These people… will lecture us about this incident — hypocrisy and all. We have the receipts. And we’re done.
I’ve become more populist over the past four years. I’ve said that the GOP is becoming a right-wing populist party; I’m okay with that. Overall, I’m OK with Trumpism. It’s brought a vibrant and passionate slice of America into the political process: people who have never voted in their lives until now. Is that bad? I want more voices, not less. Trump did a lot of good for this country, and I fear this will stain all of it. It’s hard for me to offer a full-throated condemnation of the rioters given the political corruption and games the elites play in this city, which the media establishment then gives cover, though I do so regardless.
Look, I’ve never worried about my life. American manufacturing did the Vespa clan very well. I have a loving and healthy family. Yet, millions of good, hard-working folks trying to get by are not in this situation; they constantly have to deal with obstacles thrown in their path by the circus in DC. The point is, if I could see how this Capitol Building storming wasn't a surprising event brewing for years, surely a Vanderbilt grad like Anderson Cooper could. However, he denigrated these folks as the "Olive Garden" crowd. Now, some might say he was just talking about the rioters. He was — but the underlying aspect cannot be denied: all conservatives, all Trump supporters, and all rural Americans are unsophisticated, stupid country bumpkins who have no business being anywhere near these institutions. How dare they engage in the political process, right? That may not be how Cooper thinks, but that’s how it comes off — that insufferable elitism on full display on CNN and MSNBC daily. It reads like something from Versailles before the French Revolution. The connected and wealthy wine and dine as they mock those who aren’t in their coveted echelon of high society.
"Shut up, poor trash." That’s the ethos of these DC folks.
On the GOP side, that aura carried into McConnell’s blocking of $2,000 COVID relief checks. This isn’t the time to be a deficit hawk, Mitch. The price tag doesn’t matter. The GOP even said months prior that it would be flexible on the spending side. Sorry, Americans needed help. Two thousand is still too small, but it’s better than nothing — and you said that’s too much. The optics, all of it, were just terrible. There should be tax holidays and loosening on what can be written off for businesses. It circles back to a common theme: this town is killing the country. It’s been a slow bleed, but folks are waking up.
Given who we have to deal with in our opposition and how they’ve acted before and after the Capitol Hill storming, I condemn the riot, though I know the moral high ground is merely an inch high. It isn’t good.
