Don't Let The Mob Win. Carry On The Work of Democracy!

 "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”           --Hosea 8:7

It’s not the headline I expected to read in the wake of an event that will go down as one of the most tragic and sinister events in the history of American democracy: the storming of the United States Capitol by a violent mob, seeking to overturn a free and fair election.  But on the night of the 6^th, as I surfed the internet trying to glean as much news as I could about that day’s bloody insurrection, I decided to look for any polls, to gauge what I assumed would be American’s overwhelming condemnation of the attack. America’s absolute abhorrence at the reality of armed and dangerous thugs and jackboots seeking to subvert the will of the voters.

And then I found this….       

“One in five voters - including 45% of Republicans - approve of the storming of the Capitol building”

That isn’t a typo. It’s a direct quote from a poll, taken by YouGov.org, that asked 1,345 registered American voters how they viewed what happened on the afternoon and evening of January 6^th.  YouGov is not a fringe polling outfit. Based in London, it is a widely trusted source of information and polling and the most quoted market research source in the United Kingdom.

The question they asked was clear and simple. “Supporters of President Trump have stormed the US Capitol to protest lawmakers certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. Based on what you have read or heard about this, do you support or oppose these actions?” No wiggle room there. 

I suppose the “good” news is that seventy-one percent opposed the insurrection.  But what does that say about the twenty-percent who “somewhat” or “strongly” approved of the storming?  Extrapolate that number out to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau of the number of registered voters in the United States (153 million people) and that means upwards of 32 million of our fellow citizens are okay, I suppose, with the attempted coup that happened last week.

Consider that chilling and sobering number. It certainly scares the heck out of me, as I wonder and worry about just what is still yet to come, in the post-election parallel universe that we are living in.

Where more than one hundred elected representatives in the U.S. Congress still voted to dispute the election, even as the blood on the floor of the Capitol building had yet to dry. Many of them even sent out fundraising appeals last Wednesday, as the Capitol was still being cleared. Even as reports of vicious attacks on Capitol police officers by the rioters were becoming clear. Even as the family of police officer Brian Sicknick prepared to say goodbye to a veteran and their son, he who was beaten to death by an insurrectionist wielding a fire extinguisher. Even as a life-sized hangman’s noose was erected by the protestors within sight of the center of American democracy.

So, for those among us who might be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief at the failure of the mob to overturn the Presidential election, we might want to think again.  For those who are tempted to  imagine if enough of us just sing “Kumbaya” and then reach out to the folks who led and supported this riot, then there will be peace; we may want to reconsider that pipe dream.

My faith teaches me a simple lesson: humans always reap what they sow. When the seeds of insurrection and outright lies are sown by cynical self-serving leaders and when false narratives about stolen elections are then believed my millions of Americans, at some point, the whirlwind had to explode forth. A whirlwind of chaos and fear and bloodshed and those heartbreaking images of a mob despoiling and vandalizing the heart of our democracy, the seat of our civic religion.

For someone who is the hope business, I confess it has been very hard for me to find any signs of redemption that might still emerge from the ugly events of the first Wednesday in January 2021, a day that will live in infamy. But I still believe in a God who can bring the very best out of the very worst of human behavior, a God who can inspire the good hearted and noble people to stand up for and defend eternal values. Peace and justice. Non-violence and love for neighbor, for all of our neighbors, no one left out, even, especially, the ones with whom we most disagree. Somehow we must get to a place as a nation where “E Pluribus Unum”, “from many, one” means more than just hollow rhetoric printed on a dollar bill. No.   

It is our job as Americans, to summon the courage and sow the seeds of an America yet to be born, one where the sword does not rule but instead the olive branch of peace and the scales of justice finally win the day. One where a mob cannot and will not win. One where the Constitution of the United States, not any human leader, evokes our true loyalty.

We’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s get to it.