猫咪社区

The violent mob that Wednesday, forcing Congress to be evacuated, had not even been expelled from the building before a chorus of voices, from both and , was uniting around a single message: Trump must go now.

By the wee hours of Thursday morning, with and President-elect , that chorus included at least one Republican Congressman, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who posted a video explaining why .

Members of Trump鈥檚 cabinet were , according to CBS News. Meanwhile, she was drawing up articles of impeachment.

That鈥檚 all well and good. and tweeted his support for the rioters while he to defend the Capitol. He can鈥檛 be trusted one more hour in power. Invoking the 25th will remove him immediately (the 鈥渁ppeals鈥� process takes longer than two weeks), and Congress can still impeach and convict him to make sure he never holds power again.

But it can鈥檛 end with Trump out of power. We have an active fifth column in American society that has tried to overthrow a democratic election, and it extends from the White House to the streets.

One of our two major political parties is an active participant in this. Nearly objected to Biden鈥檚 victory and tried to scuttle its certification on completely fabricated grounds. of Missouri and of Texas have appeared to encourage Wednesday鈥檚 mob violence before they made their requisite anodyne condemnations from the Capitol鈥檚 lockdown. Among the barbarians breaching the Capitol was , and in organizing the mob.

We can hope Trump will soon be gone. In less than two weeks, he will be, and Democrats will have control of the White House and both houses of Congress for the first time in six years. The question is what to do then.

President-elect Biden has already laid out an aggressive plan for and . He鈥檚 largely with competent professionals, most of whom adhere to a conventional liberalism鈥攖he more left-leaning exceptions being U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, nominee for Interior Secretary, and Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, tapped to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget.

But Biden hasn鈥檛 said much about the very real anti-democratic threat this nation faces from Trump, his enablers in power, and his supporters across the nation. When asked before now if he would pursue criminal action against Trump, he鈥檚 only said he wouldn鈥檛 stand in the way of his Justice Department, which looks like it will be led by D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland鈥攂y many accounts a , and hardly the crusader for justice this moment demands.

We can鈥檛 have a repeat of 2008, when the incoming administration of President Obama declined to investigate George W. Bush and his administration for leading the country into the disastrous Iraq War. . Two years later, he lost the House of Representatives, and in 2014, lost the Senate. Mitch McConnell became majority leader, all progress stopped cold, and the stage was set for Trump to run rampant through the halls of power, lighting fires and .

The fear on the left always has been that Biden will just be more of the same, that he would put his relationships with Republican senators ahead of the nation鈥檚 demand for justice, and that the Republicans would treat him with the same contempt as they did Obama.

Two things have changed. One is that, come Jan. 20, the Democrats will control the Senate and the White House, and for at least two years the Republicans will not be able to block legislation.

That in itself might have made Biden feel more comfortable being himself, to spend his political capital to truly try to be a unifying leader.

That would be a mistake, because the other thing that鈥檚 changed is the United States鈥� first attempted coup since the of the elected government of Wilmington, North Carolina, by a racist mob. Wednesday鈥檚 insurrection should force Biden鈥檚 hand.

There can be no unity when one of the two parties has demonstrated its contempt for democracy. There can be no mending of the country when those who are still breaking it have not been held to account. There can be no reconciliation with domestic terrorists who wouldn鈥檛 hesitate to use violence against us and our government again, and .

It鈥檚 hard to watch live video and see pictures of , , where the votes had been counted just a short while before. It鈥檚 repulsive to see someone 鈥攕omething that never happened even during the Civil War.

It鈥檚 also hard to watch the Capitol Police, who had that this event was happening, falter in the face of a violent mob of White supremacists who brought guns, explosive devices, and zip-ties. Video has emerged showing , and standing by and . These are but the latest examples that demand a reckoning across the nation for police who have routinely .

Biden won an undeniable victory and must go big and go bold to ensure that a Republican Party that would undermine democracy cannot hold power ever again. That means he must abandon 鈥渂ipartisanship鈥� or 鈥渂urying the hatchet鈥� or 鈥渕oving along for the good of the country鈥� or whatever pabulum from the last century he might use. The Republicans always would have opposed him at every step, and Wednesday鈥檚 actions, if nothing else, should serve as a wake-up call.

Protecting democracy, and indeed the future of this country, means passing the , which would expand access to voting, restoring court pre-clearance of states with a history of racially discriminatory practices. As has been remarked before, we don鈥檛 have swing states, we have voter suppression states. And no state shows what is possible when Black people are allowed to show up to vote better than Georgia, where a concerted led directly to record turnout, turning the state blue for the first time in more than 20 years and handing Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.

And speaking of voting rights, Biden and the Democrats will need to address other inequities that go back more than a century, and so they will have voting representation in Congress.

It also means prosecuting the crimes committed by Trump and his administration in the last several years鈥攁nd they are legion, going back to .

There is a legitimate debate on the policy left on whether to bring criminal prosecutions immediately or seek a complete public accounting of all this administration鈥檚 crimes, even if it means granting immunity to some of those who enabled Trump. This was an issue during .

I think something akin to a truth and reconciliation commission is necessary, because the very nature of many criminal prosecutions, especially for federal crimes under national security statutes, means that some information is never made public. Prosecutors also sometimes do not bring forth damning evidence if it does not fit the narrow scope of a legal statute. There is appalling, antidemocratic, fascistic behavior we may never learn about for that reason.

But going down the route of openness and a full accounting can鈥檛 come at the expense of justice. The danger to our democracy is too severe, too immediate.

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department moved in and began arresting the mob () Wednesday evening after a 6 p.m. curfew, taking over for the besieged and possibly complicit Capitol Police. The FBI is actively investigating people in the pro-Trump mob who took part in the violence. U.S. attorneys across the country have promised action.

That won鈥檛 be enough. Justice also demands reforming police. Today鈥檚 demonstrators were treated with kid gloves compared to the militarized response to Black Lives Matter protesters last summer. Police reform, traditionally under control of local and state jurisdictions, must be led and enforced at the federal level.

And our political leaders who so often publicly declare their love for our system鈥攖o the point of fetishization of its most antidemocratic elements鈥攎ust realize that the moment has come to abandon a sclerotic status quo in favor of real and prompt reform. The time to act is now. Our democratic republic demands it, because every day we wait is a day we lose another piece of it.