(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

As I write on Jan. 6, 2025, I’ve just witnessed a peaceful transfer of power with the certification of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election cycle. There could not be a starker contrast with the events of Jan. 6, 2021, following Trump’s clear, unequivocal, unambiguous loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election cycle.

The events that unfolded on Capitol Hill on 1/6/2021 were part of an insurrectionist coup attempt instigated by a sitting president to prevent certification of his loss by 7,060,347 nationwide votes, 4.5% of votes cast, and 74 electoral votes (306-232). 62 lawsuits were filed regarding the 2020 presidential election outcome in nine states, nearly all of which were dismissed as lacking evidence or standing and none of which constituted any evidence that would have led to a different election outcome from what factually occurred in any of those nine states.

Approximately 1,561 1/6/21 insurrectionists were charged with various federal crimes ranging from misdemeanors to assault of officers to seditious conspiracy. More than 1,000 of these coup-attempting rioters have been sentenced, with over 700 receiving at least some time behind bars. Their actions included, but were not limited to, bringing zip ties to bind congresspersons, ransacking congressional offices and the House and Senate chambers, assaulting and accosting capitol police and other law enforcement, spreading human feces on the walls of Congress, and building makeshift gallows with which to hang an effigy of former Vice President Mike Pence.

The battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, known as the Confederate flag, was carried through the halls of Congress for the first time in history because of these rioters–a feat not even accomplished by the Confederates who seceded from the Union and caused the bloodiest American war, all to preserve and expand African slavery. This flag, along with Christian flags, flags and symbols of the participating right-wing extremist militant groups like the Three Percenters and Proud Boys, and tons and tons of MAGA gear surrounded the seat of the U.S. government as the crowds raged.

This rage was fueled and immensely enjoyed by a man who would go on to face impeachment and federal felony charges for his instigations but would not be held accountable under the law because of partisan kowtowing and failure to convict prior to his reelection.

The presidential election results of 2024 stand as a critical and potentially deadly blow for the rule of law in this country, especially given the President-elect’s stated intentions of mass pardons for the insurrectionists.

A harrowing guest essay in the opinion pages of the New York Times by former sergeant in the Capitol Police, Aquilino Gonell, published on Jan. 5t and titled “For Many of Us, Jan. 6 Never Ended,” conveys the tragedy of this moment with heartbreaking clarity. To quote Mr. Gonell:

“I never wanted to be a whistle-blower or a troublemaker. I grew up poor in the Dominican Republic, came to this country legally at age 12 and became the first in my family to finish high school and college. I lived in Brooklyn, just a few miles from where Mr. Trump grew up in Queens, yet the metaphoric distance between us was vast. My dad was a taxi driver who could give me only $100 to help pay for college. Mr. Trump’s father was a real estate developer who bequeathed him at least $413 million over the years. While Mr. Trump escaped the Vietnam draft with a medical exemption for bone spurs and never served in the military, I finished my degree with the help of the G.I. Bill after I enlisted and served in the Middle East. What I experienced defending the Capitol against rioters was worse than the combat I saw in Iraq.”

Only 49.8% of voters in the 2024 presidential elections voted for Donald Trump, approximately 77,284,118 people. These folks represent about 31.5% of the estimated 245,000,000 eligible voters in the U.S. While Trump’s win with a plurality, not a majority, remains valid, Republicans hold the slimmest majority in the House in over a century and are far short of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. I sincerely hope that at least some of the nonsense of his administration and the MAGA-controlled GOP can be held at bay until Democrats have another chance at congressional control in two years.

Having been convicted and officially sentenced on 34 felony counts in New York, Trump will be inaugurated as the First Felon (faced also with half-a-billion dollars in civil penalties for sex abuse and fraud that are still standing) with flags flown at half-staff in honor of a far better President on MLK Jr. Day. It gives me comfort to know that we have the chance to honor Dr. King and to continue mourning the loss of President Carter as many of us seek to drown out the second inaugural events of a sex abusing fraud and felon. I try to live and enjoy every day mindfully, but I can’t help but look forward with hope to 1/20/2029.

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Eric Engle is a Parkersburg resident.