Criminals posing as patriots

Some Americans boast they are patriots.

Others demonstrate it.

When his country was threatened by an enemy that would destroy its democracy, Roy Harms left his comfortable life in Grafton, enlisted in the armed services, became a bomber pilot and gave his life for his country. Like so many among the more than 400,000 Americans who were killed in World War II, he was a patriot.

The people who gathered in the cold along the streets of Grafton Friday to await the hearse that returned the remains of Roy Harms, which were identified more than 75 years after he and his crew were killed in a daring raid over Romania, honored his patriotism with their own gesture of patriotism.

Giving one’s life for his or her country is the ultimate expression of patriotism, but Americans who in other ways support the tenets and ideals of this democratic republic founded on the inviolable principle that the people choose their government by exercising their right to vote are patriots too.

Americans who subvert the right to vote by attempting to overturn election results, threatening to kill the people’s elected representatives, violently attacking their police protectors and ransacking and desecrating the building that is the national seat of the U.S. democracy are not patriots.

The foregoing sentence may be obvious, but it is not needless to say. An alarming number of Americans think the members of the mob that assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 are patriots.

This malign absurdity is manifested in, of all strange things, a song that celebrates the Jan. 6  insurrection as an act of patriotism with performances by some of its perpetrators and by the man whose election defeat they sought to reverse, Donald J. Trump. Shortly after it was released on March 3, the tune became the number one best-seller in the Apple iTunes digital music store and made the Billboard hit song chart.

The tune, titled “Justice for All,” features Trump reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance” over the singing of the national anthem by men imprisoned for their Jan. 6 crimes.

The convict chorus includes a man who sprayed a chemical in the face of a Capitol police officer who died the next day and others who attacked police with various weapons as they broke into and vandalized the Capitol.

The popularity of “Justice for All” is yet another indication that the attempts by some conservative politicians and their media amplifiers to whitewash the insurrection as a peaceful protest and make heros of those imprisoned for their parts in it are working to a disturbing extent.

Even in a time when mainstream media are routinely disparaged as purveyors of “fake news” and bizarre conspiracy theories (the likes of the myth perpetrated by the execrable  Infowars website host Alex Jones that the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 29 children was a hoax) attract numerous believers, the acceptance by more than a few of the myth that Jan. 6 was a display of patriotism is remarkable.

Remarkable because Jan. 6 is not subject to interpretation. Every detail of it is known. There can be no doubt because what happened was seen by millions on live TV. The visual and audible record is a perfect copy what was broadcast during the assault on the Capitol. Nothing in what every American has been able to see and hear though various media has been altered by artificial intelligence or Photoshop or any other means. The record of Jan. 6 is nothing less or more than raw reality.

The evidence of the crimes apologists attempt to deny is so crystal clear that 541 of the 1,000 people charged for their part in the assault on the Capitol have pleaded guilty and 71 have been convicted by juries, while others await trial.

A jury in Washington, D.C. considered the evidence in the trial of members of far-right extremist group Proud Boys for their role in the insurrection and last week found them guilty of seditious conspiracy, among other felonies. The conspiracy charge alone carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

The Proud Boys boast they are patriots. They are not. Like the singers in the prisoners’ national anthem rendition, they are criminals found to be disloyal to their country.

Trump has been famously supportive of the Proud Boys, but has not yet publicly offered his opinion about their conviction. However, he has commented on his own stardom in the “Justice for All” song. In a Fox News interview, he said, “I feel like Elvis. It was number one.” He added, “That is a tribute to the fact that people feel the J6 people have been very unfairly treated.”