History Does Not Repeat, But it Rhymes

 

A year ago, today, I experienced the saddest day of my life.  I saw an evil, neo-Nazi, sour-smelling lot of anarchistic malcontents, caught up in the petty complaints of their miserable, failed lives, and incited by a sitting President, Donald J. Trump, try to overthrow the government of the United States of America.  In the year since, I have seen Trump’s apologists, henchmen and fellow travelers perpetuate the lies, incite the hatred and prepare for a second attempt to overthrow this country.  They are motivated by the same evils now that they were then the lust for power.  They use the same tools they have before: hatred, fear, ignorance and hyperbole. 

The historian and documentarian, Ken Burns was once asked if history repeats.  He said that it does not repeat but it does rhyme.  Since I am currently deep in the research for a new book about the First Ladies I was stopped—no—startled by what I found out about the people who assassinated three of our Presidents.  There is an analogy here, because, while these three deranged men wanted to kill a man, what Trump and his followers want to do is kill an entire country.  They want to kill MY country. 

Take a look at some of the similarities between Presidential and nation assassins.

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential box at Ford’s theater and shoots Lincoln in the head.  He then leaped from the box to the stage and shouts out the Virginia state motto “Sic Semper Tyrannis.”  It was five days after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia and Booth is sure that killing Lincoln will throw the Union into disarray long enough for the Confederacy to regroup and regain its authority. 

James A. Garfield was on the train platform of the Baltimore and Potomac Train Station in Washington, D.C. when he was approached by Charles Guiteau.  Guiteau shot Garfield twice. 

Charles Guiteau was a frustrated office seeker.  He was sure that he should have been given a diplomatic post despite have few skills, poor education and generally being considered and treated like a hapless dupe by all who knew him.  When he shot Garfield he yelled out, “I am a stalwart; now Arthur is President.” 

Guiteau, ignorant of the facts, blind to the truth and motivated by nothing but partisan zeal and an unwarranted ego, was sure that if he was captured, the now-President Chester A. Arthur would pardon him.  He was wrong in this as in everything else. 

On September 6, 1901 William McKinley was in an impromptu receiving line when he was approached by Leon Czolgosz.   This man was a disaffected, perennial “also-ran” and steeped in the petty concerns of his small life.  Czolgosz tried to justify the unjustifiable with the same convoluted sops used by self-absorbed, undisciplined malcontents throughout time.  Leon was an anarchist who averred that McKinley was a tool of a corrupt government.  “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people—the working people.” 

It was November 22, 1963 that Lee Harvey Oswald used a high-powered rifle and a reasonable aim to kill President John F. Kennedy. 

Oswald fit the pattern of every other Presidential assassin and potential assassin.  He was a nobody who thought he deserved better, regardless of merit.  He had forsaken his country and then come crawling back.  The CIA may or may not have facilitated this repatriation, hoping to use the man as an asset in espionage.  In any event, Oswald’s bone-deep depravity brought about an assassination.

All these men were small men trying to make themselves irreplaceable by doing big things.  They were all traitors.  They were all ignorant, easily manipulated and filled with bigoted hatred.

Let me make this as brilliantly clear as I can.  Trump did not win the last election.  He lost.  There is no evidence of fraud, no duplication of mail-in ballots, no dead people voting.  The people who tried to overthrow the government had no justification.  They only had the manipulated actions of politicians who could not stand losing their power. 

If you choose to support the Big Lie you are certainly wrong.  You are probably ignorant.  You are possibly a bigot, racist or Nazi sympathizer.  You could even be a traitor to the country I love.  What you certainly are not is a good American, and I will treat you accordingly.

Deny the lie, support the government, keep the faith.  

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