The Speaker of the House of Representatives accused former President of the United States, Donald Trump, of being an “accessory to murder” following the breach of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the shooting death of a woman trespassing in the building, several other protestors of natural causes, and a police officer. Other commentators on January 20, 2021 called the former President “pathetic”, an “embarrassment”, and “repulsive” among other things. Miss Constitution will not comment on accusing the President of murder as that is a serious charge the elements of which will be looked at, no doubt. The now minority Leader of the Senate has accused the President of “provoking” a riot and supports his conviction in the Senate on the Impeachment charge of “inciting” the breach that took place. We do not know enough facts at this time regarding how the riot came to be and who or what group planned it and for what reasons. Miss Constitution hopes it does not take as long to investigate this incident as it took to get facts on another accusation against President Trump, that he colluded with a foreign power to win the election of 2016. Even though we now know through the FBI that this was a planted campaign diversion by his opponent, he has been subjected to gross abuse by those who want the facts to be different. He is still being accused of something that never happened. What Miss Constitution fears is that we have yet again reached a stage of hysteria in our society.

Miss Constitution understands that persons who are hysterical believe with all their heart that they are right – that they have the moral high ground. They emphatically do not. We have faced this many times in our history and we have faced it because human beings are prone to being whipped into hysteria. It happens in all but the most disciplined cultures. The United States Constitution is intended, in part, to be a barrier to this mentality, but those who are hysterical do not like to be stopped and so are very willing to abandon a document that dampens down this form of mental illness. The Founders were very realistic about the nature of humanity.

I would take you back to 1776, where, in the Declaration of Independence King George was said to have “destroyed the lives of our people. . . He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us. . . a Prince thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

This is how many Americans feel about former President Trump. The hatred of his person has risen to such a hot heat that otherwise intelligent people think nothing of insults, injury, cruelty, obscenity in order to deliver a message of loathing regarding him and his family and anyone who voted for him. Prior to the American Revolution the Sons of Liberty Associations regularly stripped Loyalists of their clothes and poured hot tar and then feathers on them and paraded them around. They forced men to “ride the rail” or sit on a sharp rail carried by two men off the ground to create the most agony. Loyalist property was looted and burned. Livestock was stolen and maidens ravished. Tories were disarmed, arrested, exiled, and hung for the “crime” of being loyal

British subjects. Test Laws forced them to confess political loyalty to the Revolution or lose all and/or be hung.

How is this different from mobs entering a lunch spot today and demanding an Oath of Allegiance to Black Lives Matter? It is the same mentality — the hysterical demand that one conforms to a political position or face harsh consequences. Instead of hanging and pillaging and exiling today we purge, cancel, humiliate, bankrupt, isolate, and destroy.

Miss Constitution thinks the American people may see themselves as different from 200 years ago and different from 300 years ago where witches were destroyed in the madness that was the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. We are not different. Once hysteria begins it tends to run its course with all attempts at reasonableness or mercy thrown away as impinging on “righteousness.” One of the great values of the United States Constitution is that it is a circuit-breaker for group mania and mob rule. The Constitution requires proper Due Process for persons accused of anything and certainly before punishment is inflicted. The recent House Impeachment of President Trump without following the Constitution is but the latest example of what happens to people who are sure they are “right.” Impeach the bastard! Impeach the white supremacist in chief! Impeach the murderer! Impeach the racist! Impeach the cult leader! Forget Due Process; forget Counsel; forget the Constitution; forget everything!

President Biden speaks of unity. There can be no unity until the mental illness ends. In politics, all hysteria stems from unabated desire for power and for power at any cost or to cover-up wanton misdeeds or both. Those Americans who supported the President’s policies had legitimate reasons for doing so. The Tories of 1776 had legitimate reasons for appreciating the naval protection for their exports that the British Navy provided. They liked being British and being part of British Common Law. Trump supporters like the reduction of regulation and the securing of appropriate trade deals with other countries. They like a more careful view of China. They want manufacturing back in the United States. They might agree on some personality issues and poor staffing, but they liked the new track. They are grateful for the vaccine. They are not domestic terrorists who need “re-programming.” It is the hysterical who need re-programming.

Miss Constitution hopes the madness ends before more are hurt or ruined. She also hopes that the authority of the United States Constitution relative to censorship and purging and debate and political speech and free association and a host of other things can adequately counter the delirium so many citizens and some political leaders and corporations are in at this moment. President Biden speaks of “decency”, but all many people see right now is the indecency of the hysterical mob. Our new President might want to show some respect for the voters who chose another. He might want to discuss the reasoning of policies with a number of experts before throwing out both the baby and the bath water. Caution rather than frenzy might produce the unified result he said he hopes to achieve.