The statistics I’m reading in the press these days offer a shocking picture of today’s America. We have become a nation sharply divided between the Democrats, who favor elections and democratic choice, and Trump’s Republicans, who would prefer to ignore the vote and restore Trump to the presidency, choosing, in effect, fascism.
Here are some of the numbers I’ve stumbled across recently:
—More than a third of Americans, most of them Republicans, now believe that violence against the government is sometimes justified.
—121 House Republicans and 7 Republican Senators helped Trump try to overthrow our democracy by voting against certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
—43 Republicans voted to acquit Trump of all charges in the Senate Impeachment Trial.
—In the weeks between Joe Biden’s election victory and the January 6 assault on the Capitol, Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of the election, with many calling for executions or other political violence.
—As a result of the Trump-incited January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, some 150 officers from the Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department, and local agencies were injured; as many as ten died.
— More than 725 people have been charged with crimes related to the insurrection.
— Over 70 percent of registered Republicans believe Trump won the 2020 election.
The image that emerges from these numbers is not the U.S. I was born into and risked my life to defend. Where has my country gone and who is guilty of defacing it?
Tom Glenn, Writer 