Insurrection

On the evening of 7 April 1775, Samuel Johnson uttered a now-famous apothegm: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." The line was not about real and generous love of country, but rather what Johnson saw as the false use of the term "patriotism": that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest.

What triggered that memory was seeing again on TV news so many people waving (and wearing) the American flag as they stormed the U.S. Capitol with the intent of hunting members of Congress. Holding zip-tie handcuffs and models of gallows, their murderous intent was clear. 

Yet if they wanted to change Congress, they already had the power to do it: the vote.  If they had more votes than those they opposed, then Congressional power would swing their way. That is the way our system works. But they knew they were a minority, so they could change our government only by subverting our democracy and toppling—or murdering—the elected Congress.

They draped themselves in American flags while brandishing firearms, planting bombs, and hunting for lawmakers. What happened that day was nothing less than a failed coup d'état. Wikipedia described it thusly:

After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, then-incumbent Donald Trump pursued an aggressive and unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support and assistance from his campaign, his proxies, his political allies, and many of his supporters. These efforts culminated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, which was widely described as an attempted coup d'état. 

Thus, Trump—the man who so often wrapped himself in the flag, literally—also promoted an overthrow of our democracy. History is filled with coups d'état but this was the first coup attempted in America. Our country has come to a sad state of affairs when Americans who have the power of the vote decide that violence is a better way to change government.

Many of the insurrectionists admitted that they don't vote. For them, storming the Capitol was like beating your car with a hammer because it won't start, when you haven't even put the car key into the ignition lock. It makes no sense. And these fomenters, these demagogues (there are worse names for them) have for the most part been given light sentences, sometimes only house arrest.  

Fifteen months have passed since that Black Day and the unraveling of plots is not over yet. It is maybe, maybe, half over. For many of the rowdies who wanted to overthrow our government, the worst may yet be on its way.