Some things are not up for debate. It is what it is. They cannot be changed according to our wishes.

One such example is the events of January 6, 2021. We did not read them. No one told us. We saw them – and because they are on video we can see them again and again – with our own eyes.

What did we see? We saw that President Donald Trump called for the demonstration in Washington, DC that day. We saw that he roused the crowd with his speech, in which he urged them to head to the Capitol where Congress was meeting to ratify the election results.

We saw the mob wreak havoc, storm the Capitol, attack and eventually kill police officers, threaten the lives of the vice president and his bodyguards, and members of Congress.

We saw these things. We also saw the President refuse to ask them to leave – as all his advisers, family members, and others advised him – and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, refuse to call for the immediate intervention of the National Guard to enforce order.

So since things are like this – and even worse as the January 6th Commission hearings revealed – the question is what will be the consequences, so that something like this does not happen again in the future?

Each president swears to “preserve and protect” the country and its Constitution from all kinds of enemies, foreign or domestic. And yet, while the mob threatened the country and its Constitution, he watched them for hours on television and refused – despite the pleas he received – to order the intervention of the National Guard, in the hope that the mob would prevent the smooth transfer of power from him to Biden.

This is unacceptable. And possibly criminal.

Trump has jeopardized the country’s Constitution, a nearly 235-year-old tradition that requires the smooth rotation of parties in power. If this is abolished, then the democratic state is lost and with it the United States as we know it.

And if this is lost in the U.S., think what will happen to the rest of the world.

It is already clear that the democratic state is being challenged in a number of European countries, with the crisis now knocking hard on Italy’s door as well.

So the matter is extremely serious. It’s a matter of institutions. Democracy. It is not partisan. It is not ideological. It’s not about Biden or Hillary or I don’t know who else.

I know a lot of Trump supporters are not convinced at all. Not even with the events they see with their own eyes. Or maybe they don’t think that what happened is duly serious.

Therefore, they will not be convinced with these lines. So why am I writing them? I am writing them because each of us must take a position on this major issue.

If what we saw on January 6th and at the House January 6th Committee hearings doesn’t convince us of the danger the country is in, nothing will.
But then let us be prepared to pay the price that this decision of ours may impose.