EDITORIAL By NICOLAS GODEK 1/21/2021
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, an event occurred that most people had not thought possible. Rioters and domestic terrorists attacked our nation’s Capitol building. Prior to the insurrection, the House of Representatives and the Senate were in a joint session of Congress to officially count the electoral votes, which would cement President Biden as the official President-Elect.
During this session of Congress, rioters and domestic terrorists broke into the building forcing both the Senate and the House of Representatives to go into recess and to transport the congresspeople into a secure location.
This act of domestic terrorism is completely and utterly wrong and extremely unpatriotic. These people tried to interrupt the typically ceremonial actions of Congress of merely counting the electoral votes from each state’s electoral college. It was clearly stated by the rioters that their intention was to reverse the totally fair and safe election in order to make Trump the winner. Some may say that the election was fraudulent, even though the Trump Administration claimed this election to be the most secure in history. So if one was to believe that this most secure election, according to the Trump administration, elected the “wrong” winner, then would it be safe to assume that maybe it was more wrong in the 2016 election?
Trump provoked and incited this riot and act of domestic terrorism, as stated by the rioters and Sen. Mitch McConnell. The mere fact that the President attempted a coup, against his oath to protect the Constitution, just so he can be president for 4 more years after he fairly lost both the popular vote, just like 2016, and the electoral college vote. How is this wrong and unconstitutional? Well, when the President is sworn into office, they take the oath of office, which includes the lines “I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” and going against what the constitution says for the election procedure is doing quite the opposite of preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution. Trump put his Vice President in danger as well as his Senate and Representative colleagues, by inciting the riot bay saying that the rioters, or how some frame them as “protesters,” shouldn’t back down until they get what they want. For context, this speech was at the “Stop the Steal” rally, so they were trying to stop the “steal” of the election against Trump.
Trump made many baseless claims of election fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election. That caused his very passionate and “patriotic” followers to believe him and his false claims with no evidence, and when they found small pieces of evidence, they were very small amounts of votes. But he continued to portray to his people that the election was getting stolen from him and his supporters, which not only divided the country in general but the Republican party too.
I am a member of the Student-Faculty Congress of our school, I am in the position of a Sophomore Class Representative. I have an idea of how government should work, as it is one of the things I personally am very passionate about. The way Trump and his supporters acted was just plain wrong and very unpatriotic. Last time I checked, attempting a coup of the government of your country is quite the contrary of patriotism, as you are attempting to destroy the structure of how things are done in this very country.
The government should be about debating different causes, getting things done, and not acting under “orders” of the president. Even though Trump technically never made executive orders to control the Legislative Branch, the GOP congresspeople tended to act like he was in charge of them, as if the Legislative Branch is under the President, which, as stated in the Constitution, is not the case.
The insurrection should have never occurred, as it breaches the democracy that holds this country together. For years, America was the “beam” of democracy, as it always prevailed and truly decided who was going to be in office, even if the minority disagreed, they would never, until recently, call for a government coup. The events that occurred on January 6th was a time that showed the fragility of our country and it’s democracy.
Hopefully, all people will be able to learn from this embarrassment of a President, and we can move forward and strengthen our country, strengthen our democracy, and work together to achieve greatness. We as a country need to reach across party lines, work with those we disagree with, as we are allowed to disagree, there are next to no two people who exactly agree with each other and their political views. We need to hold our politicians accountable too, something some people do frame as silencing when the politicians that we try to hold accountable tend to be a danger and threat to the United States of America and our democracy.