One year ago today, Donald Trump and his henchmen ordered a violent clearing of peaceful protesters from the park in front of the White House so Trump could walk across the street for a publicity stunt, thus turning law enforcement officers against the very people they are sworn to protect. 

For Trump, the attack was just one of many times he would divide the government from the citizens it is supposed to serve and use one to bludgeon the other solely for his personal benefit. On June 1, 2020, Trump decided the violent displacement of roughly 1,000 peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square was a necessity so he could walk across the street and wield religion as a prop, posing in front of St. John’s Episcopal church while hoisting a Bible above his head to symbolize god only knows what amid continuing racial injustice protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder in broad daylight.

“It still feels surreal to me,” church rector Rev. Robert Fisher told WTOP News, reflecting on the event a year later. “I could not believe what was taking place,” he added, noting that the White House failed to reach out to the church both before and after the photo op. 

Trump’s pathetic abuse of power is now being defended by Biden’s Justice Department, with government attorneys arguing that the security of a president is a “paramount” government interest, according to The Washington Post.

But as state power was beginning to slip away from him, Trump also called on the people still in thrall to him to attack the seat of the U.S. government on Jan. 6. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, issuing a clarion call to his followers. “Be there, will be wild!”

In yet another surreal scene, Trump’s followers launched a deadly assault on the Capitol as Congress sought to fulfill its constitutional duty to certify the victory of the next president of the United States of America.

And once again, someone is stepping up to keep Trump from being held accountable for that deadly insurrection—but this time it’s Republicans, who have successfully blocked the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol siege, what led to it, and how it can be prevented from ever happening again. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called in personal favors to mobilize his Senate GOP caucus against the commission, told reporters on Tuesday, “I don’t think anybody is going to get away with anything.”

McConnell continues to argue the commission is “not necessary” due to ongoing committee investigations into the matter. Of course, McConnell will be the first to trash those very same committee findings as partisan politics just as soon as they find any links between Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, not to mention the potential involvement of Republican members of Congress.

That is where we stand a year after Trump turned the government on its people and then later turned the people on their government. Somehow, the powers that be continue to protect Trump from being held accountable for his flagrant abuses of power and, ultimately, his concerted efforts to overthrow this constitutional democracy and install himself as president for life. 

The American people deserve better.

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