Remember this day - The point of no return

February 13, 2021. Today was the Republican party's last chance to change their course. Instead, they have not.

They have acquitted Trump for INCITEMENT OF AN INSURRECTION. An insurrection in which many members of the Republican party directly participated and organized. An insurrection which was the last effort in a coup attempt months in the making, which had near-unanimous aid and support of the Republican party. An insurrection where a police officer was murdered and members of Congress and the Vice President were within minutes of being murdered. Republicans have declared such things are now legal. (But only when Republicans do it, because you better believe a Republican administration would arrest and imprison any Democrat who organized an insurrection).

They have firmly announced to the world and the American people that bloody coup attempts and insurrection are now part of the Republican party strategy to hold on to power. The Republican party will attempt coups and organize insurrections in the future, as they have legalized and normalized this as a core part their party.

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Here is a brief list of all the recent milestones where the Republican party could have changed their course, but instead decided to reaffirm their anti-American and lawless platform:

• The Electoral College vote certifying that Trump had lost the election.
• The insurrection on January 6th.
• The coup vote which took place hours after the insurrection.
• The second impeachment vote in the House.
• The vote to remove Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from her House committee positions for advocating insurrection and the murder of Democrat politicians.
• The vote over the Constitutionality of the second impeachment trial.
• The second impeachment trial in the Senate.

At every one of these points, the Republican party had a chance to stop, reflect, say enough is enough, and choose a new path. Some individual members of the party did reflect and vote to uphold the law, but the vast majority of elected Republican politicians have chosen to defend Trump to the death and turn their party into a terrorist organization.

With the conclusion of the impeachment trial, there is no reason for any Republican of conscience who holds any amount of loyalty to America to remain in the party. Such individuals are now a powerless minority within the party who cannot change the course it is on. If such individuals remain in the party, they are complicit in the party's crimes by giving it a veil of legitimacy.

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If the Biden administration does not arrest Trump and every single Republican member of Congress who participated in the coup, then the Democrat party will actively be assisting the Republican party in their future coup attempts. If the Biden administration does not arrest these individuals who committed the highest crime against the state, then the Democrat party will be legalizing INSURRECTION and BLOODY COUP ATTEMPTS.

As citizens, we must place maximum pressure on the Biden administration to uphold our laws and arrest the criminals responsible for the insurrection. They cannot be allowed to walk free and they certainly cannot be allowed to make laws for our nation.

As citizens, we must prepare ourselves for the next Republican coup attempt. Their next attempt will take into account all the lessons learned from Trump's unsuccessful attempt, and be much better organized and much more ruthless. QAnon cultists were preparing themselves for Trump to give the order to begin a massive Soviet-style purge of all left-wing citizens of our nation. White Supremacists have long fantasized about the "Day of the Rope", where they are able to murder all "non-whites" and "whites" who stand in their way. The Yugoslavian civil war and ethnic cleansings which took place during it show us that unspeakable barbarity can happen even in so-called "first world" countries within our lifetimes. We thought a coup couldn't happen here. It did. Republican politicians and far-right militias have been advocating for a full-on civil war. Do you still think it can't happen here?

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There is no turning back now. The clock has begun counting down to the next disaster. The Republican party is openly insurrectionary and openly supports domestic terrorists. That is not hyperbole or empty rhetoric. We thought Trump was full of empty hyperbole, but this naivety allowed him and his party to nearly succeed in overthrowing our government.

We must arm ourselves, train, and prepare to defend ourselves and our communities from continued far-right terrorism. We need to begin now, because the far-right is already decades ahead of us. As long as the Republican party remains one of the major parties in the US, it will continue to incite and provide a safe haven for terrorism. As long as the Democrat party refuses to uphold our laws and refuses to punish terrorists, Americans are not safe.

The original American Civil War did not happen out of nowhere--it was preceded by decades of openly insurrectionary rhetoric and incitement of terrorism just like the Republican party is now doing. The original Civil War was states vs states with a clear frontline and uniforms. The next civil war will be like the Bosnian or Rwandan ethnic cleansings where barbarians went out to slaughter their own neighbors.

We cannot let that happen. We must prepare to stop them.

It seems like every lifetime we go through the same damn cycle.