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Not Just Bodies Die…Did We Just Witness the Death of Trumpism?
A Year In the Death 1/7/21
This was not the post I had planned for today’s article in this series. But like many Americans, I was shocked, saddened, and sickened by the events in our nation’s capital yesterday — specifically the breaching of the U.S. Capitol. And has been the case since I began this series a week ago, I naturally thought about the events in the context of death and dying.
Because bodies are not the only things that die — political movements die as well. And yesterday we may have witnessed the death of Trumpism.
Not right away, of course. I hold no illusions that the President’s most ardent supporters are going to abandon him. On the contrary, many of them undoubtedly were energized by the acts of violence and insurrection we witnessed in D.C. yesterday.
But among the vast majority of Americans who are not beholden by strong ties to either of this nation’s two major political parties? I think history will show they pronounced Trumpism dead at approximately 2:15 PM EST on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 when the domestic terrorists breached Capitol security.
There are many historical precedents I could draw on to illustrate the exact moment various U.S. political movements either began to expire or outright died. But I’ll focus…