The worst part about today?

 Today protesters broke into the US Capitol disrupting the constitutional process of enacting one of the final acts in the transfer of power to a new administration.

Trump's actions aren't the worst of it though. Nor are the acts of the people involved.

Don't get me wrong, these aren't good things either.

Trump's actions were largely expected. Frankly, I think he legitimately believes he won. And so in his mind there is no reason not to continue. In fact, I had even started a post on how I doubted that even the count of the electoral college votes would finally stop the madness. I've stopped and discarded it because it is wholly irrelevant now. 

However, as I said before; while not particularly redeeming, he required enablers.

Similarly, it was well known that it was a good possibility that with enough fuel for the fire that the protesters would act as they will. To wit, a friend from University predicted this would happen only yesterday.

In short, these two variables will fairly well established.

But, as I said, Trump required enablers for it to escalate this far. And those enablers were those in his inner circle who knew he had in fact lost legitimately and either supported him or are trying to capitalize off his fame for their future.

I read some articles today which stipulated two things; Republicans don't want these objections to win and wouldn't support them if they thought they had a chance, they merely wanted to be seen to support them and that they have every right to do this, if they think it is what is required to protect the nation.

These are rather broad statements and hard to argue with directly. But so too is another statement; they took a gamble and lost. This is on them. They didn't seriously entertain that their actions would contribute to stoking these sentiments which drove several groups of people to take an unprecedented act which resulted in a loss of life.

You CAN feel you are justified in doing something and STILL be doing something disgraceful and wrong. They are not mutually exclusive. These politicians lied and abetted liars to advance their own political ends. And in doing so they assisted in inciting an insurrection. 

Also, they were likely quite wrong about how this will impact their political careers. As Georgia has now swung fully Democrat it seems that Trump's unhinged pursuit to invalidate the election results have eroded substantial trust in the Republican parties. At least one of the losing senators not only lost, but obtained a smaller share of the votes than they did the first time around. The quick back to back elections were a great microcosm to measure how things have changed in the electorate.

And, it was always a risk regardless. I don't genuinely think that any of these senators will be able to recoup all of the Trump supporters and that aligning with Trump's policies while not being the man himself will alienate even more potential support.