A Nation Divided: Truth, Impeachment and Reconciliation

Image uploaded from the Hammer Museum

It’s not hard to believe that we’ve come to this point. When I woke up on the morning of January 1, 2021, it felt more like the calm before the storm than a fresh start.

And storm they did.

After over four years of racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic policies and rhetoric from Trump and his supporters in the GOP, the People’s House was assaulted by domestic terrorists waving flags bearing the name of their instigators: Trump/Pence.

The terrorists who stormed the Capitol last week were enabled by the Republican party, who are complicit in allowing a sycophantic group of ‘yes’-men to feed the American people an onslaught of conspiracy theories and disinformation. This attack on verified fact has radicalized friends, family, coworkers and neighbors. In the face of an unrecognizable Republican Party, we are forced to ask ourselves how much the average American’s support of Trump and the GOP influences their moral compass.

These terrorists have been coddled by an institution that has worked tirelessly to preserve the bruised ego of white nationalists in a desperate effort to maintain their own feeble grip on power, which is a possible explanation for why the Capitol Police were unwilling or unable to enforce “the rule of law” on the MAGA terrorists. It must be hard to know what to do when the rule of law has never applied to them before and the President and his cronies are encouraging the attack.

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As far as Trump’s banishment from social media goes, it’s too little too late. It feels like the Tech giants decided to pull the ripcord after we’d already hit the ground. But the damage has already been done, and after 5 years of toxic and inflammatory rhetoric on social media from Donald Trump and his supporters, banning the President from social media isn’t even remotely close to a punishment befitting of his crimes.

Donald Trump has been in violation of Twitter’s terms and conditions for so long, it was starting to feel like you could say literally anything on the platform without fear of consequence. In fact, the very idea that we have a leader that used Twitter as a platform for the communication of everything from foreign policy to which celebrity he was cranky with that day is unfathomable. Twitter and other social media platforms like it enabled Donald Trump and his supporters to incubate their conspiracy theories and radicalize each other, and they should also be investigated and prosecuted accordingly.

The Trump administration has waged a consistent war on fact, integrity, and respect. We know that you can’t vote an idea out of office, but what you can do is strip the idea of its power and relevance. Impeaching Donald Trump does more than prevent him from benefiting from his 401k, receiving secret service protection paid for by the taxpayer, or prevent him from holding public office ever again; it gives the opportunity for Congress and the American Judicial System to take the first steps in regaining the trust of the American people.

Photo illustration by Fortune, copyright of Twitter

America was built and is reliant on the two-party system, which is a discussion for a different article. But like it or not, we’re stuck with it. That means we’re stuck with the Republican Party for better or worse. Impeaching Donald Trump forces the GOP into a corner of their own design; If the Republican Party wishes to distinguish itself from Trumpism, then it needs to send a united message denouncing his rhetoric and actions over the duration of his presidency and on January 6th. Prosecuting the individuals present on the day of the insurrection isn’t enough. Letting the leader of the insurrection off the hook would only show his supporters that their behavior will be tolerated if they learn to operate in the shadows. An impeachment and successful prosecution of the President at the Federal level would show unequivocally that this behavior and ideology will not be tolerated in a healthy and modern democracy.

While I appreciate the importance of Biden’s first 100 days in office, I believe that the only way forward is for the government to regain the trust of American people, and the only way to do that is to bring the full weight of the American Justice system on those who have left it broken. How are we supposed to heal knowing the extremists and their enablers are sent away with a slap on the wrist? We cannot afford to let our Democracy deteriorate any further, even if it forces the American people to once again recon with the question of who we are as a nation, what we’ll stand for, and what we’ll fall for.