When the United States was dividing just prior to the Civil War in 1860-61, virtually all of the officers in the Army of the newly proclaimed Confederacy had formerly been officers in the United States Army. Most famously, Robert E. Lee. Many of the enlisted men had also served in the U.S. Army.
They made a choice. They proclaimed a new allegiance to a slavery nation and repudiated their old one. They forfeited any honor or distinction their patriotism accrued as officers or soldiers in the U.S. Army. That was certainly the bitter opinion of the officers who remained loyal to the United States.
There were many military veterans in the mob that stormed the nation's Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They, too, made a choice. Not to a new country. They proclaimed their allegiance to an empty vessel named Donald Trump. Chanting "USA, USA" as they waved Confederate flags and smeared their feces on the walls of the Capitol corridors, they perfectly conveyed Trump's "alternative" patriotism. Trump told them, "We love you."
Trump's volume of transgressions against our country are too numerous to recount here, but he was able to gain the confidence of Joe Kent.
Of Trump's firehose of "alternative" facts (lies), the claim that "election fraud" in the 2020 election caused him to lose to Joe Biden is the most damaging to the country. Kent supports and repeats that lie. Sworn testimony has now shown that Trump knew he lost but had planned long before election night to claim massive voter fraud if that happened. Continued attacks on our election system and threats against election officials and workers will weaken and destroy our democracy. Of course, that is Trump's intention.
Kent says he wishes to destroy the "establishment." The establishment includes Social Security and Medicare. If MAGA extremists take over Congress, their first order of business will be to shut down the government to leverage a gutting of Social Security and Medicare. As with abortion rights, they should be believed.
They say Make America Great Again, but they trash everything the World War II generation fought and stood for, especially the importance of America's democratic example and the great responsibilities in the world incumbent upon any nation seeking to be considered great. If MAGA extremists take over Congress they say they could pull the plug on aid to Ukraine, our most wisely spent defense dollars in decades. Believe them. It would ensure a ghastly Vladimir Putin victory and exponentially increase the danger to the world and to us.
Kent says Putin is a "reasonable" man. Astounding. Putin has created human slaughterhouses in the former Soviet republics of Chechnya, Georgia and now Ukraine. His military killed over 500,000 civilians in Syria to prop up Syria's thug President Bashar Al-Assad who killed an estimated 5,000 of his own people with chemical gas. Reasonable? In what alternate universe?
If we survive as a fact and evidence based country, history will record that Jan. 6, 2021 was a perfect snapshot of Trump's alternative patriotism. Joe Kent has made his choice.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
