Yes, Trump Tried to Overthrow the US Government To Stay In Power

A brief history lesson.  In late January of 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, but his Nazi Party did not have the majority of the seats in the Reichstag (the German Legislature) at the time. Hitler called for a new parliamentary election, which was scheduled for early March of 1933. Hitler's goal was to get a full majority in the Reichstag and abolish Democracy through legal channels.  The election strategy was to target the Communist Party seats which would then give Hitler the ability to do whatever he wanted in regards to Legislation, even dissolving Democracy.

Then the Reichstag was burned to the ground.

The fire happened the evening of February 27th.  There's a fairly consistent consensus that Marinus Van der Lubbe, a communist extremist, acted alone in the arson, but even immediately after the fire, critics in England and the United States (remember when every decent person in this country used to HATE the Nazis?) became skeptical of the incredible luck Hitler and the Nazi's had with such an attack.  The day after the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was signed, basically removing most Germans civil liberties.  Where the March election still didn't give Hitler the 2/3rd's majority he needed for the Enabling Act, the one piece of legislation which gave Hitler all power in Germany, between the continued post fire extreme fear mongering of Communists, and with many member of the Social Democratic Party (the only party who could actually stop Hitler) being arrested to prevent them from showing up for the vote, the Enabling Act passed and...well, we know the rest.

There are a few strong pieces of evidence that the fire was an inside job by the Nazis. A history teacher I had in Germany for a college class on the subject mentioned the election prior to the fire was not looking like it would go the Nazi's way, and there was a real chance the Communists would pick up seats, costing Hitler his majority. There was also sworn testimony, certified in 1955, from a former SA unit member who said he was tasked with getting Van der Lubbe to the Reichstag, AND the building was already on fire when they arrived.  And in 1943, Herman Göring was openly bragging about setting the fires himself.

The goal for Hitler and the Nazi's was to take over Germany by getting control of the Legislature and shutting it down.  They tried to win on normal election methods, but when that failed, they used the attack on the Legislature to install Hitler as Dictator. Goodbye German democracy.

Over the last four years, I've written about the concern people have had about a self centered, mentally compromised, ego maniac who is clearly only on this planet for self gratification becoming President of the United States.  When Trump won in 2016, buoyed by a Republican Party where "owning the Liberals" was the only thing that matter, something Trump played like a fiddle, I (in stunned disbelief) really started to ask how flexible the US Government system really was and if it could survive a President who wanted to install himself as leader for life.

After reviewing the timeline of events from Trump and the White House between the Election Day 2020 and 1/6, after the litany of books being released on the subject over the last few weeks, to the shocking reveal by the Department of Justice that Trump seems to have tried to order them to delegitimize the election adding "...just say the election was corrupt, leave the rest to me and R Congressmen," it's time we call what happened what it really was.

Donald Trump and his Republican Allies in his Administration, as well as certain Republicans in Congress, tried to overthrow a legitimate election and (in turn) overthrow Democracy itself.

Let me repeat that:

Donald Trump and his Allies in his Administration, as well as certain Republicans in Congress, certain political activists, and various right wing/pro-fascism/racist organizations tried to overthrow the legitimate election of 2020, and (in turn) overthrow Democracy itself.

Make no mistake, this would have been the end of the American experiment as we know it.  You can't do what they clearly were trying to do and then ever expect to walk the country back into Democracy. Once you cheat on such an obscene level to win, when it looks like you're about to lose again, you'll shrug your shoulders and take the cheating path every time. 

We came closer than I ever imagined to watching the USA fall.  If Vice President Pence would've caved on his responsibility, this would've been a huge mess. Instead he followed the Constitution and ended up running for his life as Trump turned the mob against him.  For God's sake Trump’s mob was screaming to "Hang Mike Pence!" 

If not for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not exactly the most liberal group, who held the line by telling Trump point blank we will not deploy US troops against our own Citizens.  It sounds as if our military leaders had made a pact to be the last stop against the fall of American Democracy, but the White House was undeniably testing the barrier.

And it should be noted just enough Republicans, the ones whose names would've been the ultimate decision makers in certain states, the ones who would've been the defendants called into court to explain their treasonous decisions if they went along with Trump, found enough courage to say "No, I am not going to be part of this."

If not for those three groups of people, goodbye America. 

This is why everyone who was complacent with this travesty is now desperately trying to rewrite what happened as harmless fun.  It wasn't.  It was an attempted overthrow of Democracy, thankfully attempted by the dumbest people in the country.

I was in the US Army.  If I was on a guard post, and a person was trying to crawl through a smashed in window to get at a member of my chain of command [2 Points: 1) Speaker Pelosi is the 3rd most powerful person in American Democracy, hence she is actually in the Chain of Command, and 2) Ashli Babbitt was not trying to deliver a well worded list of demands to the Speaker. She was a terrorist; a traitor to the country looking to attack and likely physically harm the Speaker.]  I would've dropped her, without even thinking about it.

The reality is Trump and his supporters are a small minority of this country.  We need to hold them accountable and make sure we turn everyone involved in the attack on our country on 1/6 into the villains they truly are.