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We Are Perilously Close to a Civil War. It Is Our Job to Stop It

After a summer of “mostly peaceful protests” that very often ended with flames engulfing random buildings in cities across the country, after years of calling the duly elected president of the United States a traitor and comparing him to Hitler and other fascists, after years of denouncing “right-wing terrorists” while turning a blind eye to the countless cases of violence perpetrated on conservatives by left-wing agitators after years of pretending that Big Tech wasn’t censoring average citizens and mocking anyone who raised concerns about the power of those who now host the public square, after doxing countless administration officials and urging people to publicly accost them, after tacitly encouraging activists to protest right-wing journalists and politicians at night outside of their homes, after applauding the demonization of average Americans and the destruction of the lives of those who do not agree with them, after all of that, the political establishment and the media suddenly woke up on Wednesday to see hundreds of thousands of enraged Americans storming the Capitol building of the United States. The people’s house.

Their response? To lay the blame squarely at the feet of Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States.

They still don’t get it. President Trump was not the author of that message. He was just the messenger. 

The message? That average Americans are sick and tired of the incompetence of their government. Sick and tired of the corruption that has sold our country out to the rest of the world. Sick and tired of being betrayed by the very people they elected to represent them—to fight for them. Wednesday was just another manifestation of the outrage of citizens who are disenfranchised.

The media and the Democrats immediately spun the protests as a demonstration of the corrosive power of Trump. They called his speech at the Ellipse an incitement to violence. They demanded his immediate resignation. They threatened to impeach him . . . again. They denounced him as a threat to democracy.

But we expected that. The media and the Democrats are the president’s political enemies. They will seize on anything they can to try to destroy him, his followers, and his legacy. Who can blame them? They have a constituency to represent—even if it is comprised of people they brainwashed to hate the man and the half of the country that supports him.

But establishment Republicans? In a better world, we might expect them to stand up for their constituency. After all, establishment Republicans like to point out how the Democrats come around every two years to ask for minority votes and then completely forget about them as soon as they secure reelection. The Republican establishment wouldn’t make the same mistake with their base, would they? 

Of course they would.

Establishment Republicans—the weak-willed, out-of-touch, sniveling spineless cowards—immediately reacted with outrage. Some called the mostly peaceful protesters at the Capitol domestic terrorists. They denounced them. They betrayed them.

A Republican congressman opined on television that this is not how we solve problems in this country. He talked about how we solved problems with debate and deliberation. It’s not entirely clear how he—or any member of Congress, for that matter—would know anything about solving problems, let alone debate and deliberation. 

Congress took six months to approve a measly $600 for the beleaguered citizens that they represent. And even passing that required hundreds of billions of dollars of appropriation to a compendium of every lobbyist and special interest group’s pet project. And then they expected us to applaud them for doing their fucking jobs.

For a party that glamorizes the Revolutionary War—you know, that mostly violent protest that we had a few hundred years ago—the Republicans and the conservative establishment are surprisingly myopic about the perils of not listening to and acting on the grievances of their voters. They ignore their base at their own peril.

If Congress were slightly more circumspect, they might fear the 82 percent of the public that disapproves of them.

Facebook, Twitter, and Apple sensed weakness and pounced immediately. Facebook and Twitter banned the sitting president of the United States. Apple announced it likely would be banning the Parler app from its store. Tech-savvy tyrant-wannabes are likely trying to figure out how to bully ICANN and the large telecom companies into censoring us completely. 

What odds would you take that your favorite Republican representative even knows what ICANN is, let alone how it works? But some principled conservatives will soon tell us that the free market will incentivize some imaginary savior to create a new internet. Don’t bet on it.

You’ve seen the censorship, the repression we have faced, the cancellations, the inability for normal Americans to live their lives without fear that some social media mob will come and ruin their livelihoods because of their beliefs and their statements. And that was with President Trump in office and a Republican Senate. How do you think you will fare under a President Biden (Harris) with consolidated power in Congress? Do you think John Roberts will save you? How’s that been going for you? If they can censor the president of the United States, they can do it to anyone.

Enough is enough. We must primary nearly every single Republican representative and senator in 2022. We must replace the corrupt establishment with a new slate of hungry, young, candidates on the Right. I know what I’m doing for the next two years.

In the meantime, we must make our voices heard with our representatives. If the House mail servers and switchboards don’t crash on Monday morning at 9 a.m., we will have missed a massive opportunity.

We cannot do this through social media—the platforms are against us and will do everything in their power to repress our message. We can no longer tweet our displeasure into the void hoping that some change may come from it. 

This is a job for you. Yes, you. You can call ten of your closest friends and get them fired up. You can ask them to pledge that they will call, email, mail, and fax their representatives on Monday morning to express their outrage at their gutlessness and to demand immediate action to restore freedom of speech, election integrity, and the values that so many men and women in our country’s history have died for. 

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About Karl Notturno

Karl Notturno is a Mount Vernon Fellow of the Center for American Greatness in addition to being an entrepreneur, musician, and writer. He recently graduated from Yale University with degrees in philosophy and history. He can be found on Twitter @karlnotturno.

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images