Congress Has Different Feel Since Last Wednesday | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the LifeZette. The author of this post is David Kamioner.

    Over the years I've spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill on business and for social events. I have not been there since Covid-19 hit. But for the people I talk to on a daily basis, Congress has changed and not for the better. Rightly or wrongly, hill rats feel under siege. Staffers now jump at weird noises and most have lately figured out how to pull an emergency bug out.

    There may be satisfaction in this for some, as Congress isn't the most popular institution in the nation. But it still has a job to do. Chad Pergram of FNC seems to understand the situation.

    Pergram: "Pick your poison. If you work at the U.S. Capitol, you could very well face an insurrection against the United States of America by a pack of invaders who the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia says could be charged with sedition and conspiracy.

    And, if you manage to survive marauders storming the Capitol, you may catch COVID.

    The events of the past week converted the U.S. Capitol into a house of horrors. Those who spent hours barricaded under desks, hiding in broom closets, or locked in restrooms are now suddenly expected right back at work as the House impeaches President Trump for the second time in 13 months and launches a Senate trial.

    That's ironic. The Capitol serves as the 'the people's house.' The legislative branch is supposed to be representatives of the people and the states. You can erect all of the barricades you want around the U.S. Capitol. Build automated barricades on the streets embroidering the Capitol complex. Keep the Air Force jet fighters hot 24/7 at Joint Base Andrews across the Potomac to shoot down an intruding plane. Dispatch sniffer dogs about the Capitol grounds. Inspect the automobile trunks of staffers who park in the Rayburn garage across the street from the Capitol. Look for guns among tourists entering the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

    But, it turns out, the weapon to pierce the Capitol wasn't a gun. It wasn't a bomb. It wasn't a truck. People were the weapon. The 'tools of conquest' were their thoughts. Beliefs. Grievances. Anger. Hostility. The insurrectionists were armed with enough rage, malevolence, and rancor to attempt to tear down the Constitutionally-mandated legislative branch of government and sidetrack the counting of the Electoral College mandated by the 12th Amendment. These were ideas, shifted into gear by people who believed they could extract a dividend by sacking the Capitol, maybe taking hostages, and perhaps assassinating American leaders.

    You can't defend against that if that's what people think. And, if they have enough people who believe that who — egged on by the President of the United States — are willing to bull rush the doors and plow underfoot an outmanned U.S. Capitol Police force, then the gig is up.

    Capitol Police officers are shaking. They feel that their leaders set them up to fail. They mourn for their fallen colleagues, Officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood. And now they have to protect the Capitol during an impeachment trial and inauguration?..." He's got a point. Several, actually. The place is wounded and bleeding. That is not good for the country. It will take time for it to recover.