ag·grieved /əˈɡrēvd/

adjective, feeling resentment at having been unfairly treated ~ Google dictionary

I heard a news report Tuesday, January 19th, that described the people who invaded the US Capitol as “aggrieved.” I’ve also heard that word aggrieved associated with many of the Trump supporters. As I thought about it, that word accurately describes so many of his followers, some of whom are also elected officials. Aggrieved describes people fed up with government fed up with leadership fed up with the life they live. They are also fed up with the hands they have been dealt; they don’t quite know who to really blame or what to do, so they have become aggrieved.

Now, many people qualify to be called aggrieved, defined as feeling resentment at having been unfairly treated. Let’s look no further than black people who have been discriminated against, subjected to slavery, second-class citizenship, inhumane treatment, and even being murdered by police. Those are things to be aggrieved about. But the aggrieved Trump supporters are typically middle-class and working-class white people who, because of some of the demographic and societal changes that they see in their environment, have become aggrieved. The “white privilege” they’ve enjoyed and exercised for centuries isn’t good enough anymore. The substitute for that privilege, for that head start, is to feel more and more aggrieved and to continue to feel superior by advancing and promoting racism.

They’re mad at black people; they’re mad at brown people; they’re mad at any form or governmental system that seems to want to help black and brown people. They’re mad at Democrats; they’re still mad because Obama got to be president, and now, they’re mad as hell because the icon of their aggrievement, Donald J. Trump, has been defeated. Let me go on. They don’t want health care because it passed under a black president. They’re OK with giving billionaires tax breaks because it passed under Trump and other Republicans. So, to, in a way, get back at black folks, they’re okay with being sick, and, to go along with white folks, they’re okay with being robbed.

The people we saw in Washington DC on January 6 were the representatives of this aggrieved class, and oh how they represented them. The outfits, the antics, their demeanor, violence, and apparent ignorance was certainly on display. I guess you might say that they represented their constituents well as they took notes from

their iconic Trump and his lieutenants, US congressman Mel Brooks of Alabama, Rudy Giuliani of dubious fame, and other Trump children and acolytes who egged them on, rounded them up, sent them off to do their dirty work, while they went into their safe havens to watch the show.

They’re mad at Democrats; they’re still mad because Obama got to be president, and now, they’re mad as hell because the icon of their aggrievement, Donald J. Trump, has been defeated.

Facts do not sway these fervent supporters of the now-former president; they harbor Trump’s conspiracy theories, and they echo his dark fears of immigrants, Black and Brown people, and anyone else who threatens their narrow viewpoints. Although this seems to be the only group that has bought Trump’s positions, hook line and sinker, as many of us always saw him as a fraud who cheated the office he held and threatened the fabric of our democracy. After Charlottesville and after inciting a riot that took over the US Capitol, he remains a hero to them even after two impeachments. After all that he is and is not, he is still the hero to the aggrieved.

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