For anti-Trump Americans, calamity spurs a muted sense of vindication [View all]
By Matt Viser
For the past four years, a parade of Democrats and establishment Republicans had shouted alarm about the noxious brand of politics that President Trump had nurtured, saying that it would lead to potentially deadly repercussions and a political repudiation.
Over the course of a 24-hour period last week, both of those fearful predictions came to pass, as the worst aspects of what Trump has wrought were put on full view and he, his party and the nation faced significant consequences.
First, Republicans lost two Senate races they had been favored to win in the usually conservative state of Georgia, giving Democrats full control in Washington as Trumps party blamed him for the losses. Next, Trump incited his supporters with false allegations about the November election and directed them to the U.S. Capitol, where the mob mounted a deadly attack on another branch of the government, and on democracy itself.
It was no outside force, only the actions of Trump and his supporters, that brought on calamity. In its wake was left a shaken nation and a mix of reactions among those who had long sounded the warnings that last week became undeniable. Yet any sense of vindication was buried under the horror of Wednesdays insurrection at the Capitol.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/capitol-riot--vindication-trump/2021/01/09/4195a966-5216-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html