Many Americans learned a new word last week - Sedition

 

According to Merriam-Webster searches for the word "sedition" were up 1500% on January 6th, the day thousands of domestic terrorists egged on by Trump and his fellow Republicans stormed the Congress to disrupt the certification of the legitimate election results.

 

Merriam-Webster defines sedition as “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.”

 

Now let's recap what Trump and his fellow insurrectionists said/did to stoke the riots...

 

Ron Johnson said: 50 to 70 million Americans "have real legitimate suspicions that this election was stolen" 

 

Paul Gosar of Arizona called Biden an "illegitimate usurper." 

 

Ted Cruz of Texas cited: "unprecedented allegations of voter fraud." And said, "Are they going to try to steal?  Yes" 

 

Mo Brooks of Missouri said: "start taking down names and kicking ass"

 

Before the insurrection Trump himself said: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

 

During the insurrection Lauren Boebert of Colorado live tweeted Nancy Pelosi's location.

 

But this photo of Josh Hawley giving a fist pump to the crowd as they stormed the Capitol will probably resonate the most.  Photos have a way of doing that.

 

Today Trump will become the first U.S. president in history to be impeached twice.  And the first one impeached for Incitement of Insurrection.

 

But what about his co-conspirators in the Sedition Caucus?

 

The 14th amendment, section 3 says:

 

Section 3

No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

 

Words matter.

Sedition matters.

Take another look at that photo.

 

Trending 'sedition'  merriam-webster.com.  Retrieved January 12, 2021, from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/sedition-20210106

 

Socialism is bad. Or is it?

 

Fear is a very effective motivator.

 

Apparently all it took to persuade many people in Florida to vote for Trump was to threaten them with Socialism.

 

Specifically, their Facebook feeds were flooded with the message "Your city on socialism, your hospital on socialism, your grocery store on socialism and your politician on socialism " accompanied by dismal photos of what is currently happening under the Trump administration. (Warzel, 2020)

 

You really have to admire people who are able to get others to worry about a future that may not happen in the middle of a pandemic that has killed over 350,000 Americans to date - using actual photos of the devastation that pandemic has wrought.

 

But that gets us back to the irrational fear some seem to have about a word they can't properly define.

 

(See this blog for more about that... http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2019/10/what-is-socialism.html )

 

It's too late to try to explain to people what socialism actually means.  Instead we should be focusing on the programs that the phrase refers to.  People may fear the word socialism, but they probably fear losing their healthcare more. 

 

What if the Democrats had countered with the message - "They want to take away your healthcare."

 

My guess is that would have been even scarier than worrying about running out of toilet paper. And even more motivating.

 

 

Warzel, C. (2020, November 29)  What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers.  nytimes.com.  retrieved January 5, 2021, from  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/facebook-disinformation-boomers.html