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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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View: https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1351534970075033600?s=20
U.S. authorities have leveled the first conspiracy charge against an apparent leader of an extremist group in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, arresting an alleged Oath Keeper who is accused of plotting to disrupt the electoral vote confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and proposing further assaults on state capitols.
Thomas Edward Caldwell, 65, of Clarke County, Va., was taken into custody before 7 a.m. on four federal counts, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States in the attack on the Capitol. The conspiracy charge is reserved for offenses interfering with or obstructing the lawful operation of government.
A charging affidavit says he helped organize a group of eight to 10 individuals, including self-styled Ohio militia members https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/oath-keeper-three-percenter-arrests/2021/01/17/27e726f2-5847-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4 (apprehended Sunday), who wore helmets and military-style gear and were seen moving purposefully toward the top of the Capitol steps and leading the move against police lines.
The affidavit cited a Jan. 1 Facebook message in which Caldwell said he had scouted lodging for several others at a Comfort Inn in Ballston, Va., about eight miles from the Capitol that “would allow us to go hunting at night if we wanted to.”
View: https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1351556860692881411?s=20
I believe that, as president, Trump was a danger to democracy and the rule of law, precisely because he was a danger to truth. But I believe his lies weren’t necessarily the most damaging ones to our country. Equally harmful, if not more so, were the lies that allowed him to flourish — not just others’ repetition of his lies, but also lies that many told themselves and others to justify not contradicting them — that you can’t take him literally, that you need to look at what he does or that his policies justified it all.
I believe many people didn’t know any better than to believe Trump’s lies, and still don’t. But I believe that the ignorance, intellectual indolence or hatred of those who don’t know better can’t excuse the failures of those who do, who could have said something, but didn’t because they felt it too inconvenient, unpleasant or politically perilous to do so. I believe it’s good, and I’m grateful, that some who were politically aligned with him are speaking out against him now. But I believe the country could have been saved great anguish had they done so before.
At one time, I believed, because I wanted to believe, that Trump could be a good president, or at least a passable one. I wanted to believe that, because I believed in many of the policies he, his party and his administration have professed to believe in. I still believe in many of these policies, even though Trump’s incompetence and perfidy have discredited them. And I believed that those who rise to the great office of the presidency often rise to the occasion, out of appreciation of something greater than themselves, and that Trump would do the same.
I believe I was wrong. I believe that not because I want to, but because the facts — mostly, Trump’s own words and actions — showed otherwise. As time went on, I came to believe Trump was a terrible president, and could never become a good one, and that, indeed, he was far worse that many of his critics, whom I had disagreed with, had made him out to be.
I came to believe Trump was mentally, psychologically and morally unfit for the high office he held, and, indeed, any position of public (or even private) trust. I came to believe he will go down in history as the worst president America ever had. I came to believe that his pathologies fostered division and hatred, and potentially violence, and rendered him incapable of achieving persuasion and consensus, and therefore incapable of successful governance.
And I came to believe he was a grave threat to democracy and the rule of law, and that he cared about neither.
