Dark night, bright dawn

It’s not often K Street mirrors the rest of America, but that has certainly been the case for the last few weeks—awakened to a new dawn but shaken to the core by the nightmare we’ve experienced.

On K Street and Main Street, we looked on in horror as crazed but purposeful mobs beat and killed police, ransacked the halls of Congress, stole private and classified data, and sent our elected leaders scurrying for cover, in fear for their lives. All this was done at the urging of the sitting president with the aim of overturning an election.

How does armed insurrection come to America?

As we learn more, we’re beginning to understand the mob was “cover” for intentional activities designed to disrupt and undermine the tallying of the vote in the delusional hope that a coup could be completed. It was a scene we had never witnessed before. The question now is whether we’ll see it again.

How does armed insurrection come to America? How does storming the Capitol, with nooses and pistols, clubs and cuffs, morph from drunken barroom fantasy to operational reality? In the name of what does a citizen ignore the vote, disregard court rulings, trample on the country’s founding principles, and take up arms against elected representatives?

In sum, what causes so many to want to believe the ravings of a would-be tyrant, himself incapable of admitting defeat, indifferent to the well-being of the Republic, disdainful of the democratic principles that made his candidacy possible?