The Churn

Reminder: Atlanta Still Won, and Trump Still Lost

Mike JordanJanuary 7, 2021

Atlanta will save America yet

Atlanta had a major moment yesterday — a very proud moment. We’d delivered, and proven our willingness to step up to our civic responsibility to participate in representative democracy. 

TL;DR, we flipped the fucking Senate, showing the world as we have for so many years and decades that even when those around you don’t have the guts, brains, morality or sense of duty to do what’s right, you can do it all by yourself. Yeah, we snapped. 

But Donald Trump, the sitting president of the United States, tried to steal a great moment in American history for himself. Whether we want to accept the truth or not, the facts are that Trump encouraged, promoted and allowed a mob of terrorist thugs to break into the U.S. Capitol in order to block the certification of the election of President-Elect Joe Biden.

Trash shit.

Looking at the news as it happened yesterday, it was easy to feel desensitized to what was actually happening. It’s always good to widen the scope at times like these and see things from an outside perspective.

While I am admittedly and decidedly not a right-wing person, I personally looked at the right-leaning British newspaper The Telegraph, to see what they were saying about us. And it was some of the most embarrassing shit you ever want to read about yourself at 7 A.M., which is generally the time of day when you get the most honest look at yourself anyway. 

Let’s not play around here. Trump planned this shit. He said, back on December 20, that we should prepare for a “wild” January 6.

Back during the first presidential debate on September 29, when he told the Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by,” some folks wanted to believe he was just speaking too quickly, rather than he would actually call on them to show up in D.C. at a later date. 

It’s no accident and no coincidence when people show up to our nation’s capital with a large wooden cross and matching gallows, complete with a noose. Were they intended to be used? They sure looked like they could be. 

And with all of the advanced notice that there was going to be a “demonstration”/”protest” in D.C. yesterday, any reasonable person would expect that our nation’s security apparatus would be aware and prepared for unreasonable activity. 

Instead, these trash insurgents were allowed to disrespect America, in the name of weave-wearing, spray-tanned scumbag Donald Trump, a living disgrace who went from being a fake billionaire and porn star trick to becoming commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, keeper of America’s secrets and the most powerful man in the free world. 

Who were these people I call “trash insurgents,” you ask? Let’s have a look.

A man walked through the Capitol building with a giant Confederate flag. No mask, no shield, no fucks given. No worries. 

Another man was photographed wearing a hoodie that read “MAGA Civil War.” 

A man was photographed walking through the Capitol with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s whole fucking lectern. 

An asshole even removed the U.S. flag from outside the Capitol, threw it down to the ground, and attempted to replace it with a Trump flag.

And it has been said widely enough already, but one more time for the record: You already know what would have happened if the crowd would have been even the tiniest bit less white.

This. Is. America.

Let’s keep it real: We all know people who voted for Trump, both in 2016 and a couple months ago, although they’ll probably tell you they didn’t this time. But numbers don’t lie. 74.2 million people still voted to “keep America great.” 

A lot of them live in Georgia. You see them every day, even in Atlanta. You might work with some of them, and even consider some of them friendly. Hell, these mud-bathing seditionists might have even wished your family a happy holiday season last year, before heading back home to the woodshed to finish constructing gallows sturdy enough to hang you with. 

Whether anybody you know was involved in the failed insurrection of January 6, 2021, one thing is certain. Those of us who want a less-insane America have a lot of work to do over the next four years, and beyond. 

But there’s a reason to be optimistic today, even in the thick cloud over Washington that’s making it hard to see clearly our democracy. There’s one thing the state of Georgia, and all of the good people in Atlanta, can be proud about. 

We saved America. 

Sure, the national news outlets waited for results from Pennsylvania, and in some cases Nevada, before calling the race for President-Elect Joe Biden. But it was Georgia, and specifically Clayton County, that made it feel real. That’s one of the reasons Trump is so angry at Brian Kemp — losing Georgia was not supposed to happen. 

But it did. 

When Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue were forced into a runoff election against Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the state of Georgia once again decided that they preferred better leadership and representation. And it wasn’t just Atlanta — Savannah, Macon, Albany, Athens, Augusta and Columbus also showed up and showed out. 

But when it came down to the wire, it was Greater Atlanta, and specifically DeKalb County, that really sealed the deal. And a lot of Georgia voters may have wanted it to be different, but in a democracy, majority rules. Y’all are with us now, and the state, today, has rejected Trump.

As we learned yesterday, Trump’s time in power is not yet over. He can still cause chaos from the White House, which he’s chosen to do. He’s still putting batteries in the backs of spineless elected officials who pretend that the storming of the U.S. Capitol was not a blatant criminal act with intention of disrupting at best, and overturning at worst, the will of the American people. 

But when the tear gas clears, and every traitor that participated in that drunken terrorist hoedown inside and outside the halls of Congress is either arrested or voluntarily returns to the wicked misery of their dystopian swampland, Atlanta will still be here.

We’ll still be making waves, influencing everything, voting out suckers, demanding positive changes and passing out culture to all who want to be part of a better world. We’ll still be the home of the kind of leaders who can inspire the change that will progressively show our nation its best self. 

TL;DR: Do not let these Y’all-Qaeda, Vanilla-Isis-ass Yee Hawdists steal your optimism. Keep that same energy, Atlanta. 

Trump and his failed coup will not take away the fact that Atlanta saved America. We’ve been leading for a long time; it’s time now to go big in 2021.