Opinion

Time is broken in the Age of Trump. The ability to distort reality is one of fascism's greatest powers. World-historical events are collapsed down into a few days or weeks. Perspective is lost.

Over the course of two weeks, the American people experienced an attempted fascist coup by Donald Trump and then his subsequent impeachment for inciting insurrection. On Inauguration Day, two weeks after Trump's supporters overran the U.S. Capitol building, Joe Biden will finally become president of the United States of America.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was hammered on Twitter in Sunday morning after posting a letter he sent to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asking that there be no impeachment trial of Donald Trump for sedition, saying the country needs to "heal."

According to the South Carolina Republican who is now a part of the minority party in the U.S. Senate," after the 2020 election, "The Senate should vote to dismiss the article of impeachment once it is received in the Senate. We will be delaying indefinitely, if not forever, the healing of this great Nation if we do otherwise."

As might be expected, critics of Trump and Graham were in no mood for Graham dictating what happens next -- as you can see below:

Investigations of the terrible crimes committed against the United States at the Capitol last week had scarcely begun when the usual suspects launched a right-wing cover-up. Rather than blame the motley swarm of #MAGA fanatics, white nationalists and habitual criminals whom we all witnessed storming into the citadel of democracy to stop certification of the 2020 election, they pointed the finger to the antifa and Black Lives Matter movements.

This article first appeared in the National Memo.

Three House Democrats from Texas have called on party leaders in the U.S. Senate to back the expulsion of a member of their state's congressional delegation, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, for what they term "seditious" behavior related to the insurrectionist mob that overran the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Signed by Reps. Veronica Escobar, Joaquin Castro, and Sylvia Garcia—all from Texas—a Friday letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (soon to exchange title) argued that it "is evident that Senator Cruz echoed Trump's false voter fraud claims for political gain, going so far as sending a fundraising plea during the armed stand-off in the Capitol where members of Congress, staff, and journalists were held hostage for hours."

Late Saturday the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump has been telling donors that he is seeking $2 billion to build his presidential library after he leaves office on Wednesday.

The report notes, "The president has told supporters he wants to raise $2 billion for the library — a far greater sum than has been raised for past presidential libraries — and thinks he can collect it in small-dollar donations from his grass-roots supporters."

Needless to say, critics were both stunned at the amount and found the idea of a Trump Presidential Library -- reportedly to be built in Florida, --hilarious and they were quick to mock the president who is notable for refusal to read even simple memos while he was in office.

You can see some responses below:

The second American Civil War has begun.

No official announced Trump's Civil War. That's the reason our major news organizations dance around the awful truth using obfuscating language.

When Donald Trump ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016, many top Republicans shunned him. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confidently explained how Trump was "not going to change the platform of the Republican Party, the views of the Republican Party… we're much more likely to change him." He even admitted, "it's pretty obvious he doesn't know a lot about the issues." McConnell alluded to Trump's racism in vague terms, saying, "I object to a whole series of things that he's said—vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop… these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country."

But as soon as Trump won the Electoral College and was declared the winner of the 2016 race, McConnell set to work to ensure he could make full use of the newly elected president regardless of Trump's continued spouting off of dangerous lies and hateful claims. The Senate majority leader was happy to see the seating of ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and most recently Amy Coney Barrett. He went on an unprecedented spree to remake the federal judiciary into one that is dominated by white conservative men, young enough to reshape legal decisions for a generation. He pushed through a massive tax reform bill that disproportionately benefits the wealthy, allowing almost no room for debate over it. He ensured the Senate turned into a "legislative graveyard," refusing to even consider hundreds of bills passed by the House of Representatives, thereby ensuring that most policy changes during the past four years were shaped by the president's executive action.

Senator Josh Hawley knew he would be entering history when he catapulted himself into national prominence by declaring he would challenge the January 6 certification of Biden electors, transforming a pro forma event into an attempted coup. He is, after all, a historian, having written a serious biography of our 26th President: Teddy Roosevelt, Preacher of Righteousness.

Perhaps he even had TR in mind, imagining himself emulating the strategic insight and bold action that had propelled the 26th president onto the national stage in 1898. Then, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt had encouraged war with Spain, and when war commenced, resigned, formed the Rough Riders, then led the charge up San Juan Hill that made him a national hero and prospective President.

With President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration less than a week away, many far-right conspiracy theorists continue to make the thoroughly debunked claim that the election was stolen from President Donald Trump — including evangelical pastor Robert Henderson. This week, Henderson angrily claimed that Biden couldn't have won the 2020 election legitimately because God wouldn't have allowed it to happen.

During an unhinged rant, Henderson told his followers, "You're going to tell me that a man that has been the best friend that Christianity and the kingdom of God has had is going to be removed by God and replaced by a baby-killing socialist? You're going to tell me that God's going to do that because President Trump didn't humble himself, when all he's done had been attacked, had been attacked, had been attacked?... Oh, really, what do you say when he says that Jesus Christ is the most famous person on the Earth?"

Since March 2020, our body of mental health experts, the World Mental Health Coalition, has urgently recommended that Donald Trump be removed from the presidency, whether via the 25th Amendment, impeachment, resignation, or an involuntary psychiatric hold. Following his incitement of violent insurrection where five people were killed and a massacre of lawmakers was attempted, we have issued a call for his removal from the presidency for medical reasons.

While a second impeachment is a step in the right direction, without actual conviction and removal, the public remains vulnerable. As president, Donald Trump officially controls access to weapons capable of destroying civilization.

At first glance, one might think the attackers of the U.S. Capitol have little in common with ISIS or Al-Qaeda. But they are both cut from the same cloth: narcissistic terrorists who see vindication not in their purported ideology, but in a belief system where they see themselves as the center of attention, capturing their exploits on video to broadcast to the world via social media. Thus, the events of January 6, 2021 can be called "The You-Coup."

Only slightly less shocking than the assault on the U.S. Capitol was how many of them livestreamed their own participation in their bid to destroy the American legislature as members officially counted the ballots for the 2020 Election. There was little attempt to wear practical masks, or much of an attempt to disguise oneself among the mob. Perhaps some thought in the new authoritarian system that would replace the U.S. Constitution, that they would be regarded as heroes and wouldn't face accountability. But for most, it didn't matter if their own video would lead to their incarceration, loss of a job, and potential family estrangement. For the narcissist, public attention and adoration matter more.

Donald Trump has made history again.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him a second time because of his role in inciting violence before the coup attempt last Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol. Trump is now the only president to have been impeached twice, and could easily have been impeached on other occasions for his many other crimes against democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law.