Treason Most Heinous

 

An angry mob confronted the police as it tried to gain entry into the Capitol, 2 p.m.Credit...Ashley Gilbertson/VII, for The New York Times.

The Capitol Hill insurrection of 6 Jan 2021 was a traitorous act orchestrated and incited by Donald Trump to overthrow our Democratic Republic. Trump’s actions were a heinous treachery, exponentially exceeding the treason of the most hated of all American traitors, Benedict Arnold. 

Donald J. Trump, while President of the United States, incited insurrectionists into the Capitol building for the purpose of overturning the American voters’ will in favor of his desire to continue in power as President. Further, his followers were intent on capturing and murdering members of Congress as well as Vice President Pence. 

They failed — only by mere seconds — the narrowest of margins. 

In the process of following Mr. Trump’s direction, they sacked the Capitol building; murdered one police officer; injured multiple others; and killed at least three of their own rioters.

In comparison, Arnold’s treachery simply involved surrendering West Point, NY, to the British. He too, failed by the narrowest of margins.

Still, to put it into historical perspective, General George Washington called Arnold's treason, “Treason of the blackest dye”, because during the Revolutionary War, “…holding West Point meant preventing the British from controlling the Hudson River and dividing the colonies in two.” George Washington called the fortified site “the most important Post in America.” Loss of West Point could have spelled loss of the revolution.

The consequences of Trump’s treason have yet to play out. His supporters have “drunk the cool aid” and lost all sense of reality. They are adrift in a gaslighted, twisted, “alternative universe” of doublespeak and doublethink, where right is wrong and wrong is right. 

Over the past years they have slowly stewed, like the proverbial frog in the frying pan, in an endless blizzard of lies and fringe-wing propaganda plus a concoction of religious insanity, which they call "Christian", but is in fact totally opposite of the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

For them Trump has become a divine instrument, the voice of God, if not God himself.

Yes, treason most heinous, inflicted on our nation by a man masquerading as president, has wounded us most grievously, if not fatally. Convalescence will require a colossal effort on our part, through a multitude of disciplines, if we are to recover.

41 minutes of fear: A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege