Is this the death of mainstream Trumpism? Trump supporters left a peaceful rally near the White House on Wednesday afternoon and marched on the Capitol, clashing with police officers, toppling barriers and climbing walls to storm the building. Capitol police deployed tear gas against the rioters, buildings were evacuated and members were encouraged to use gas masks in their offices. At the time of writing, the National Guard was on its way to the Capitol to quell the protest.
The quick turn from a happy warrior march to an aggressive and violent attempt to stop the certification of the presidential election results was ultimately the culmination of a sad trend in society. The left weaponized violent protests all summer in response to police brutality. Democrats largely refused to outright condemn riots that saw stores looted, property smashed and in some especially horrible cases, people killed. Instead of refusing to give in to that mob, the Trump administration delayed sending in the National Guard and even started quick work on criminal justice reform with Sen. Tim Scott.
Is it any wonder that Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen from them do not trust the democratic process anymore and feel their only recourse is violence? This type of behavior has been repeatedly justified and even rewarded by political forces in our country.
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What is perhaps most disturbing for people who support Trumpism is that this may be the death blow of its mainstream survivability. The senators who backed Trump on challenging the election results, like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, are going to second-guess the political feasibility of standing with people who took over the Senate chamber and injured police officers. Trump supporters in general will be painted as domestic terrorists, even though people were always assured that violent factions on the left were not actually part of Black Lives Matter.
The culmination of a legitimate movement of nationalism and populism will be forever tied to violence and, according to the mainstream media, white supremacy. It will be much harder for the right to fight against that perception when videos of people scaling the Capitol fence are played all over cable television.
