Raise your hand if two months ago you thought the singular gravest threat to democracy in America wears $5,000 Brioni suits, tortures facts and never misses an opportunity to funnel tax rebates to flush corporations. Ours was a brutish political climate, advanced by a brutal president. But at least we knew whom and what we were up against.
And then came a deadly reality few outside the ranks of epidemiologists and science could’ve fathomed — an aggressive virus capable of killing a quarter million (and counting) and disrupting everything from international marketplaces to simple human connections.
In retrospect, given warning and science enough to reckon for suffering and death on this scale, we would’ve been better prepared; not just to confront the virus itself, but the collateral damage sure to be wreaked upon a nation devoid of presidential leadership and empathy.
Same with the personal loneliness and brokenness caused by social distancing and quarantines, forced and voluntary. Had someone told us two months ago we’d be holed up with kindergarteners or competing for the last 24-pack of Charmin, we could’ve at least conceptualized what everyday consequences might result.
But in an instance unforeseeable by any measure, last month 100 angry protesters, some armed with military-grade long rifles, entered Michigan’s capitol building to bully legislators into fully re-opening that state’s economy.
The crowd was armed with more than guns. Still photos from outside and inside the building show them bearing confederate flags, pro-Trump signs and regalia, at least one swastika and a noose dangling from the back of a truck clearly there to intimidate governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Not satisfied to fill the capitol lawn and gallery, the more aggressive elements attempted to storm the House chamber, but stepped down when barred by a disciplined line of Michigan State Police. More than one member of the state legislature was quoted with asking if they should begin wearing bulletproof vests to work.
Trump had previously scorned Whitmer for continuing Michigan’s stay home policies, only to double down by legitimizing the protestors via Twitter: “The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”
The showdown in Lansing last month should be a watershed event. But it won’t. Already lost in the worldwide din of life under the virus, we’ve barely enough national bandwidth to process actual shootings, let alone those that are thankfully diffused.
But the perfect storm of unrest that came together last month — economic desperation, open racism, faux patriotism, barely existent gun laws and presidential enabling — could occur elsewhere. And end even more ugly.
Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister living in Hendersonville, N.C. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2020
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