January 7, 2021: Yesterday

Yesterday was the 12^th day of Christmas, also the Feast of the Epiphany, which is a date some Episcopalians use for “time to take the tree down now.” It’s not doctrine, and in our house, the tree comes down whenever it’s convenient, but Epiphany sounded perfect. Warnock had been declared, we were waiting on Ossoff,  I posted that great dance video, I dialed up a chipper podcast I wanted to listen to – not a politics podcast, even - and we got the ornaments off and packed into their boxes. It was time to start on the lights.

Then all hell broke loose. And that was all she wrote.

Ye gods.

If you think I have some unique and wonderful insight into yesterday, I don’t. I did say to my husband, last week, “Do you think something Really Really Bad is going to happen on January 6^th?” It wasn’t a premonition, more like, “Given the way Trump is behaving, and the way the Republicans in Congress are not standing up to him, and the way he’s got his bad guys riled, isn’t it more than likely?”

I mean, I called the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. It wasn’t rocket science.

Anyway, the first crop of good takes on yesterday are out there. Stephen Colbert is brilliant, as is Seth Meyers, as is Heather Cox Richardson as is Jimmy Kimmel as is Alexandra Petri as is… you know. If you want a take, you know where to find takes. You probably have favorite places you go. If you don’t have favorite places, try one of these, or the one at the end.

Colbert asking Republican supporters of Trump if America is great again yet – not long

Meyers calling for Trump’s removal – not long

Richardson about the coup attempt and the Confederate flag - an hour long, brilliant, and worth every minute

Kimmel in his Treason Finale – not long, and do stick around to the end

Petri on "we love you, you're very special" – short and sweet

Hey, I have a question. You know that shaming trope, “When your grandchildren ask you what you did to stand up to autocracy, what will you tell them?”  Well, that’s not my question.

My question is: Did you, personally, ever ask your grandparents what they did in the war, or in the Cold War, or in any historical moment? Did you? Did you listen raptly and either boo or applaud them?

I think I asked my dad about World War II and I got a little bit of an answer, but it was about the utter stupidity of war. Then man had medals. He was a Marine. He didn’t want to talk about it. The weird thing about the trope, to me, is that it suggests we had all better act honorably now, just so that on some distant date, we can pass muster with our judgey progeny.

It’s so strange, is all. It’s echoed by so many who are saying, of the Republicans - either the silent enablers or the expicit co-conspirators - that history will judge them harshly. What the heck?! I judge them harshly right now. Come on down and join me!

Also, there’s another shaming trope: The world is laughing at us. I don’t know exactly why this always strikes me as The Least of Our Problems, but it does. It’s like we’re saying to a toddler, Don’t torture animals in front of the NEIGHBORS! But our embarrassment isn’t the issue. The fact that our kid is torturing animals is the issue.

I heard from several of my overseas pals yesterday, and they weren’t laughing, if that’s any comfort. I did get a little prickly with one who seemed to be piling on, but I managed to ask for clarification and learn that her country is under some pretty scary leadership right now, too. So she gets a pass. I sent her a very short Adam Gopnik think piece from The New Yorker about America’s crisis of democracy.

I have felt better hearing from all of these thinkers, but the Gopnik piece was the one that resonated the most. And it wasn’t even written yesterday. 

Today I'm reading and listening and pretty much sunk in yesterday, and writing to politicians, urging them to invoke the 25th Amendment. (What did you do after Trump incited insurrection, Grandma? Oh, I sent emails and texts! POSTCARDS! I wrote postcards!) And when I put that aside, I'm thinking of getting the lights off the tree.