If you didn’t see this coming, you weren’t paying attention.

White supremacy is our problem here, but so is American exceptionalism. I hear countless people saying that we are still the greatest country on earth. That we are still a beacon around the world.

This is wrong.

We very literally have now lived through an attempted coup, supported by the collusion of angry fascist Trump supporters, Donald Trump, and Republican Lawmakers.

The evidence is clear that this was planned and premeditated, and that the hope was to harm Congresspeople.

Yet so many are still defending this country we live in as a beacon for democracy—as the greatest country on earth.

We are an example of what NOT to do. We are an example of a country who needs to be quiet for a bit and learn from other evolved democracies.

We need to reflect on how our systems slowly got us to this point, long before Donald Trump and QAnon.

We need to talk about how Congress is filled with conspiracy theorists and seditionists due to racist and un-democratic gerrymandering.

We need to be honest with ourselves about this culture of white supremacy that we all support through silence and complicity.

We need to be clear that this type of violence has been happening since the beginning of our history—with people of color bearing most of it.

We need to talk about free market capitalism and how that has contributed to this very moment.

We need to talk about how money has diluted our elections, making it possible for said seditionists to amass enough power to buy their seats.

We need to hold “moderate” democrats accountable who have enabled Republicans through both-sides-isms.

We need to talk about our flawed values of rugged individualism and self-interest—and how those gave the rioters the gusto to storm the capitol.

We need to call on our representatives to impeach and remove not only @realDonaldTrump but also @tedcruz and @HawleyMO.

We need to start NOW in getting people registered for the 2022 election. The deck is still stacked against us due to gerrymandering and other suppression.

Republicans will not change their minds. They will not learn from this. They will continue to erode our democracy. They’ve shown us who they are and what they want time and time again. They want to stay in power, even if that means disenfranchising voters.

I believe in redemption. I believe that we can heal.

But it’s impossible without radical systemic change, CONSEQUENCES FOR SEDITIONISTS, and a drastic change in our values.

We cannot claim to be beacon for democracy while so many believe this attack was warranted.

The United States—and all of us Americans—need to clean up our own act before we can claim to be a role model for the world. American exceptionalism was born from white supremacy—and it needs to be stopped.

We are no better than anyone else. We have so much work to do.