Frank's Musings

The availability of all the texts exchanged between the January 6 Capitol assaulters evidencing their rebellious intentions shows that they wanted to document their “historic” role in overthrowing the government. For that matter, their leader, Donald Trump, has likewise made no effort to conceal his actions to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

Bragging about their Constitutional violations displays their belief that they were answering a higher rule of conduct—Natural Law, not human-created convention. Their intention to serve their personal interests at the cost of societal order directs their behavior. That is the same compulsion that drives schoolyard bullies; it also justifies revolutions.

Resentment of the requirements of civil society is the principal driver of the modern world’s right-wing movements and has transformed the American Republican Party. The danger in the surge of “Trumpism” is that it eradicates the function of institutions to regulate society’s expectations.

When Donald Trump won the US presidency, some of us were unconcerned because of our faith in our government of institutions— “the rule of law.” Now we can see how fragile that framework is. No liberal democratic system of government lasts forever, especially in the absence of a vigilant citizenry.