The Unthinkable

We’ve spent a few years where the unthinkable has become commonplace. Who would have told you that reggaeton would really be considered a piece of music or that you would see a Super Cup in Arabia. Or a global pandemic or a war in Europe. But of course the unthinkable is no longer that a mob of dangerous clowns storms a parliament. We had seen Brazil before. One of the most detailed accounts I have read of the January 2021 events in Washington is that of Congressman Jamie B. Raskin in a book titled The Unthinkable, published in Spain by the Berg Institute. The unthinkable devastated this man, who has been dubbed the kindest of the house: On December 31, 2020, his 25-year-old son committed suicide, and on January 6, 2021, he was in the Capitol. Within a week his world collapsed. Everything he believed in. In her story, the two experiences overlap beautifully, and how the memory of her son, a brilliant young man with a passion for politics and a depression that exacerbated imprisonment, drove him to fight for his country’s future. He then led the Democratic team on Trump’s second impeachment and the congressional inquiry into the attack.

Raskin, a constitutional law professor, didn’t believe much in the Illuminati. In an appearance to defend gay marriage, she responded to a Republican who told her that her Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman: “Senator, when you took the oath of office, you took the oath You put your hand on the Bible and swore to defend the Constitution. He didn’t put his hand on the Constitution and swore to uphold the Bible.”

We can already see that the Washington attack was not just a scare, but a model to be followed later. But you have to see how it came about beforehand. Because it was based on warming people’s heads, it’s another point in a chain of events, not the first. And perhaps the attack on Brasilia will not be the last. You can easily refine the model. Hitler’s 1923 coup d’état also went awry and ten years later thought of something more elaborate. If I were a ruthless politician, a staunch fascist, or one of those idiots who break into parliament and hang around an office taking photos, I would think about how I could do better next time.

The Washington thing didn’t come out of nowhere. If you recall, in March 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Trump attacked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her restrictions on the population. By April, he was fed up with demanding freedom and tweeted, in all caps, “Free Michigan.” And two weeks later, a group of armed lunatics entered the capital of this state. Trump condemned it? No, he tweeted, “The governor of Michigan should step back a bit and put out the fire. These people are very good, but they’re angry.” In October, the FBI arrested 13 men accused of conspiring to kidnap and kill the governor. What Trump tweeted in January after the attack on Washington was: “Go home. We love you, you are special.” The unthinkable, two years later, is that Trump is not done politically, he could be a candidate for the 2024 election and his party did not kick him out. Which seemed unthinkable to us on January 6th , was the other way around: it got him points. That’s what I said, keep getting points, we’ll see more great things. That’s why it’s important to be aware of what someone is playing who is copying these tactics, even in Spain. That everything that looks like it, we already know where it ends, even though it seems unthinkable.

Subscribe to continue reading