Le Coup pour Rien

 -- By Tom Phillips                   

The first rule of a revolution is that you need to win it; because you'll be harshly punished if you fail.  

Mao Zedong, who won the biggest revolution of the 20th Century, wrote:  “A revolution is not a tea party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery...  A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”

President Trump has been impeached for "incitement of insurrection," but it wasn't a real insurrection, and had no chance of winning.  It was just the the final episode of play-acting in a show that's been running for four years, a fantastical grand finale in which five people actually died.  Mr. Trump lives by appearances, and can't cope with realities -- e.g. the Coronavirus, or the election results.  He keeps thinking he can fix things without doing anything about them. 

This week, as he summoned a mob and sent it against Congress, he failed to understand that a show of force is not the same as actual force.  Actual force performs work, as in one class overthrowing another.  A show of force is just a photo-op.   

The gang that stormed the Capitol had neither a plan nor the ability to overthrow Congress.  After forcing their way into the building, their main actions were shooting  selfies and stealing souvenirs.  Even if they had been able to blow up a pipe bomb, or assassinate a congressman -- as they reportedly hoped to do --  they had no  military or political organization to follow up.  These people are amateur terrorists.  Their product is not revolution, but fear of revolution.  Don't let them frighten you. 

The irony is that the President is being punished as if it were a real insurrection.  His fatal mistake was to attack the very people who enabled him to rule.  Republicans finally turned on him not because he lied, betrayed the national interest, trashed the constitution or incited violence -- he'd done all that for four years -- but because the violence was aimed against them.      

Trump was done in by his famous lack of empathy.  He relished the thought of his "deplorables" rampaging through the Capitol, frightening Democrats under their chairs.  Unable to imagine anyone else's point of view, it never occurred to him that Members of  both parties would be outraged at having their offices trashed.  Of course, when the halls were cleared, members denounced this not as a personal outrage but an attack on Democracy -- in the sacred citadel where they sacrifice daily to do the people's business.   

The only thing these events make clear is the privilege of the governing class ---  men and women in suits who represent the people in a place where, as one leading member put it, "corporations are people too," and laws are written by lobbies.   

To paraphrase Elvis: -- You can do anything! But lay off of those bespoke suits.     

Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips