Trump, then, retreated to his TV room where he cheered on his personal army. He'd assure his troops he'd be there with them as they marched to the Capitol. It reminded me of Jonathon Winters' character Colonel Robert Winglow, who would assure his troops: "Men, be brave! I'll be right there with you. So, forward, men! Into battle! I'll be right there with you the whole way, watching you in the long lenses from this hill."
If one is honest and savvy to American history, it's not hard to figure out why selective enforcement allowed Trump's army of hoodlums to access the Capitol so effortlessly. Why we heard reports of Capitol Cops posing for selfies with some of the vandals. Or why some cops reportedly acted like tour guides when hoodlums could not find an office they were looking for. "Oh, sure. His office is down that hall to the left."
I'm not one to lay a blanket damnation on all cops; one has to respect the danger and difficulty faced by those overwhelmed Capitol cops. But I do question whether the normal, run-of-the-mill male cop is not more concerned with securing his own manhood and following orders that keep him employed than he is with enforcing the conditions of justice. Women cops obviously aren't protecting their manhood, but just like the men, they're susceptible to peer pressure and not wanting to rock the boat. The average cop isn't looking to be a "profile in courage" for civil liberty or human rights causes or to go up against those who, based on personal and professional assumptions, are allies and friends.
Plus, these people were not non-violent Black Lives Matter or anti-war protesters. They were very angry, very aggressive, likely armed and reinforced by mob psychology. It seems no one wanted a firefight inside the Capitol. The one marauder shot and killed occurred as she was literally climbing through a smashed window into the House of Representatives chamber, an act that effectively slowed the assault so congress members could be moved to safety. Several high-ranking officials have speculated that in all the end-of-regime confusion the Trump White House may have arranged a selective enforcement "fix" with Capitol Police to facilitate a big show of force. They obviously should have cordoned off the Capitol so such a mob could never reach it.
It's not difficult to see Donald Trump as the self-obsessed producer and star of a boffo, climactic reality-TV-show scene at the Capitol. Act Four, Scene One: "Assault on the Evil Fortress." His narcissistic shortcomings certainly helped him blow it, to the point he underestimated the destructive intensity of his personal army and, indeed, in the end, its loyalty to him versus loyalty to its mob instincts.
What he accomplished is hoisting himself on his own tragic petard to the point Nancy Pelosi, whose office his army literally violated, is ready to publicly hang him in the rotunda. And as Dave Lindorff has suggested on this site, his very-evident craziness may have effectively removed commander-in-chief from his portfolio.
The whole sordid affair needs to be rigorously investigated to see if the White House arranged for limited police protection and the non-enforcement of existing laws that ended up making the US Capitol Building so vulnerable.
Furthermore, the invasion/occupation of the Capitol by a violent mob eclipsed the really important news for January 6th -- the runoff elections in Georgia that turned the keys to the US Senate and the entire US Congress over to the Democrats.
Following this violation of their body, I'd encourage Nancy Pelosi and the US House of Representatives to quickly whip up articles of impeachment and vote for them in a single day. Then, send it over to Mitch McConnell and the US Senate for a conviction. If Mitch won't budge, it's been pointed out that an impeachment conviction in a Democratic Senate once Trump is out of office would be legal and, importantly, would prohibit him from ever running for federal office again.
Such legislative action undertaken in the very chambers Trump's buffalo-horned miscreants defiled would put Donald Trump into a special historic category: the only president impeached twice and the only one actually convicted. It's how selective enforcement can work for all Americans -- not just the anointed.
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