Tom Fulks: In this new civil war, there is no middle ground
We’ve been fighting a borderless civil war since before Trump’s equivalent of a beer-hall putsh.
It’s a conflict between American democracy as we know it and a fantasy-driven rebellion against objective truth, the rule of law and common, human decency.
The battleground has been Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and outer-limits media. Waged in a virtual world, it was easy to ignore or dismiss.
But the Riot Heard ‘Round the World changed all that. Our Capitol was attacked. People died. Now it’s real – in person, up close, with blood.
Our Second Civil War is here, out in the open.
The first shot in CW2 was the sacking of our Capitol Building – the Fort Sumter of our time – an assault led by a MAGA-hatted mob of flabby rubes and gullible marks, dupes aroused by The Big Lie, spearheaded by a phalanx of armed white nationalists motivated by grievance and hate.
So far, five people are dead.
The seditionists have the taste of blood on their muzzles. They promise more this weekend, a coordinated assault on state capitol buildings across the nation.
Bloodlust is dangerous – sired by exuberance and the romantic fantasy of battle, sated only by confrontation with the horror of the real thing.
The attack on the Capitol was CW2’s First Battle of Bull Run. By happenstance or malicious design, it caught the Union off guard.
Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, will be America’s 21st century Second Battle of Bull Run. This time, the Union will be ready. If the New Confederates want it for their selfies and rebellion porn, there will be more blood – most likely theirs.
We shouldn’t be surprised by this violence against our sanctuary of democracy. Seditionists have been mustering in plain sight for years.
This New Confederacy is everywhere among us – not camped across some river, not sequestered behind some mountain range, not gathered below some simple line on a map.
Its troops have been drilling in full view in Wal-Mart parking lots, on the freeway with Trump-flagged truck rallies, “Stop the Steal” banners and Gadsden-flag decals.
The emergence of the New Confederacy is the natural consequence of a purposefully divided nation. It’s not so much we’ve “become” divided as we’re “being” divided.
If we’re to believe credible journalism and official works such as the Mueller Report – and I do – malign foreign and domestic forces have combined to set Americans upon each other to fight over our differences in race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, geography and whatever else can be tossed into the blender.
This program of division has been a deliberate, foreign-government-controlled, long-running operation, juiced on steroids when Trump somehow Sopranoed his way into the White House. The ongoing psy-ops campaign has manipulated our perceptions of reality, our understanding of truth, honesty and the definition of “patriotism.”
Putin couldn’t have scripted it better. We used to just argue over sports. Now it’s everything.
We fight in the same rooms, same homes, same neighborhoods, same towns, same states, same social media channels robotically individualized to reinforce and magnify our personal beliefs. Using our own algorithmed sources of “news” to form – or misinform – our personal views, we fight over Trump’s mendacity, racism and corruption.
The fight over COVID – a disease that threatens humanity – is even politicized: Who’s masked and who isn’t? Who cares about others and who doesn’t?
We don’t have to head to the Mason-Dixon Line to get to this war front. It’s here, within our families, among old friends whose bonds of love and conviviality are deeply frayed, amidst our coworkers, neighbors, cycling buddies and surf bros.
Our common ground is mud. Our bonds of family, history and religion, our shared memories and dreams for something better – our souls – are at war with one another. It’s all or nothing in this deadly American dance.
Score a goal for the Kremlin.
Today, we have no borders to retreat behind, nowhere to go. All we have to save us from ourselves is our Constitution and the law. There’s no alternative.
The terrible choice Lincoln faced – total war to save the Union or appeasement to save the peace – was no choice at all. He did what duty required.
This New Confederacy, this insurrection, cannot stand. Its confederates can’t walk amongst us without consequence, especially those we’ve elected and sworn to defend our Constitution.
We must ask our local Trump Party elected officials, those of the party formerly known as the GOP:
Whose side are you on, Trump’s or America’s?
There is no middle ground.
Tribune Columnist Tom Fulks serves on the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Central Committee.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 7:17 AM.