A Proud Boy
An original acrylic painting, unframed
( click on image to enlarge )
I painted, and previously published, this reaction, to what I witnessed happening at
the United States Capitol building, on January 6th, 2021. That was when everyone was
watching on television, as stupid insurrectionists swarmed the seat of our democracy,
at the command of Donald Trump. Trump was also watching, as the violent lynch-mob,
which he had organized and called to the capitol, became increasingly destructive
and lethal, but he did nothing to stop them. He was hoping that they would succeed in
their overthrow of our democracy, so that he could hold on to power. Many of those
violent, capitol invaders saw themselves as comic-book super-heroes, because they
believed all of the false conspiracy theories, and the big lie about a stolen election.
They believed those things, because of all of the Republican Party's congressional
leaders, who failed to firmly denounce Trump's lies, even though they knew that the
attorney general and over sixty judges, had said definitively, that the election was
correctly counted and recounted, numerous times. The Republicans who were in
positions of power, preferred to go along with Trump's lies, rather than risk loosing
their congressional seats: They preferred to put their own personal interests ahead
of doing what was best for the country, just like Trump. And just like Trump, they
have no honor or the courage to do what is right for America.
Even now, well over a year later, the majority of the Republicans are still unwilling
to speak the truth, even as the Jan.,6th congressional, investigating committee is
beginning to reveal just how far Trump and his co-conspirators were willing to go,
in order to hold on to power. Perhaps some more Republican tongues will begin
to loosen, if the Department Of Justice begins to come down hard on them.
Let us hope so!
And now, what about some of the other gifts the Republican party has given us.
While Trump's party controlled the Senate, McConnell and the gang managed to
stack three more Republicans into the Supreme court. The primary qualification of
these three, to serve on the court was apparently their willingness to lie to the senate,
and claim that they couldn't overturn the personal freedoms of all Americans. They
called those freedoms well-established, and secure precedents. And then as soon
as they had the opportunity, they began to overturn those well-established precedents.
Women have now been reduced to second-class citizenship, with no control over
their own bodies or their own destinies. Religious schools and teachings will now
receive tax-payer funding. And individual states and communities will no longer
have the right to protect their citizens, by making sensible gun laws. And then, to
top that off, they removed the authority of government authorities, to help save our
planet from global warming, by restricting the emissions of greenhouse gasses, from
our air polluting industries.
As the world becomes ever more inhospitable to life, due to our burning of fossil
fuels, these judges will take away any twenty-first century, personal freedom that we
now enjoy, if that right is not specifically allowed in the constitution, ( an Eighteenth
Century document, which had no original provision against slavery). Now, all it takes
for us to loose another of our personal freedoms, is for some disgruntled, religious nut
to bring a case before this Trump court, and there goes many decades of advancement
in racial, social, and sexual freedoms.
Donald Trump instituted lying as the guiding principle of the Republican Party,
and the party members remain unwilling to put the people's interests ahead of their
desire to hold on to their power. Mendacity and chaos are now supreme in America,
thanks to the dishonorable actions of the Republication Party membership.
Eugene P. McNerney
