What Next for US Democracy?
Ethan Gray / Jan 10 / Democracy
There was no appetite to continue this line of articles after the November election. However, given the events that unfolded upon Capitol Hill on January 6th, there is, unfortunately, no other reasonable course of action. Anyone that has been following the president's rhetoric, fecklessly encouraged by his enablers in Congress and conservative media, will not find Wednesday's events surprising, but that does not make them any less demoralizing.
The public school system in the United States teaches students to have a certain reverence for the founders and the ideals they held. A system of checks and balances, equality under the law, the pursuit of liberty, free elections, and a government that derives power from the consent of the governed. There is a lot of valid cynicism held by the citizens of America when contemplating their government. But I have always believed that most aspired to live in a United States dictated by those founding ideals. The United States has never once lived up to them in full, but the constant march of progress got the country closer with each passing generation. What happened Wednesday is not expected in America, which made it all the more alarming. The spiritual notion that the United States is the shining city on the hill, a beacon of hope for those desiring a better life, was broken for many people last Wednesday.
It is difficult to sum up how deplorable Wednesday's actions were at the capitol. I would sincerely hope elected officials in the GOP can now grasp the repercussions we face from their fanning of conspiratorial claims. Elected officials that people trust indulged a false, destructive narrative in the pursuit of short-term electoral payoffs and did so at the expense of peace, liberty, and democracy. Make no mistake, the crescendo of events that led to Wednesday's riot was entirely preventable.
When discussing the question of slavery, Thomas Jefferson said, "But as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go." Republicans could not hold on tight enough to the contemporary equivalent, allowing the world of alternative facts to persist for so long, which sowed seeds of doubt in our elections. We see the subsequent effects. A mob vandalized our capitol when our election should have been certified, and five citizens died.
Elected Republicans take Trump seriously, but tragically, his base takes him literally. You reap what you sow, and we see the cost of indulging claims based on conspiracy and hatred. The acquiescence of the Republican party led to deaths on Wednesday. Those Congress members who chose to embellish false allegations that led to the dejection held by Trump's base in our electoral process will go down in infamy as history is written.
Videos are continuing to surface of the inconsistent police response to stop the intruders. Some show capitol police opening barricades and waving people inside. Others show law enforcement in violent stand-offs, in which one officer died. However, the inconsistent use of force and the apparent lack of planning show a bias against those protesting for systemic reforms following George Floyd's murder. I was part of entirely peaceful marches in Minneapolis that law enforcement met with tear gas. We all saw peaceful protestors gassed and shot at with rubber bullets outside the White House so President Trump could take a photo-op with an upside-down bible that was not even his. That is not to say violence was absent from protests this past summer, nor is it a condonation of violence in any respect. But the use of force that many peaceful protests for Black Lives Matter faced far surpassed many, but not all, actions taken against the mob that broke into the capitol building while Congress was fulfilling its constitutional duty. Some officers stood their ground; I do not mean to discredit them. However, if groups were reversed, it is difficult to imagine the same capitulation by some officers and utter lack of preparedness as a whole.
It is also important to note that the basis for the two protests is not comparable. One is rooted in the systemic injustice faced by minorities that have only had real political influence since 1964 following the Civil Rights Act. The other is rooted in a false conspiracy that our legal system and Republican election officials across the country soundly rejected. One can only imagine what would happen if a group of protestors associated with Black Lives Matter broke into the capitol in a hypothetical reality where Congress was certifying President Trump's re-election. Regardless, Wednesday's events will have ramifications far beyond racial injustice in the United States.
As Americans looked on in dismay, there is no doubt that autocrats of the world cheered silently and replayed the events on Capitol Hill through state media. It is impossible to tell exactly how this past Wednesday will impact American influence and diplomacy worldwide, but I can make a few conjectures. America has unquestionably weakened its soft power around the world. How can the United States lecture countries on the ideals of free and fair elections when officials have misled a sizeable portion of the populace into ignoring them? After four years of Trump disparaging allies and praising autocrats, watching his supporters break into the capital will only reinforce the notion that America is now losing its way, at home and abroad. Democracies in the west will undoubtedly question the stability of their transatlantic ally. The ally that has been the lynchpin of the liberal democratic order we have enjoyed since the end of World War Two. According to Freedom House, a global democracy index, the world has seen over a decade of democratic decline. Watching one of the most powerful democracies regress on its principles will certainly not help reverse that trend.
Within the United States, the Republican Party will have to reckon with its failures. After four years of incompetent governance, the president's sway over a minority of voters remains despite frequently misleading policy and lies, but it is clear a majority desire change. Georgia sent its first African American to the Senate and voted for a Democratic presidential ticket for the first time in 28 years. Within four years of winning them, the Republican party has relinquished control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. A feat not seen since 1892. The increasingly radical and obstructive sentiment, primarily started in the tea party movement, has slowly eroded Reagan era politics. That while often holding delusive policy positions, at least maintained the tradition of competent governance and deal-making. The rebuke to Trumpism at the national level, and the outcomes of Georgia's senate runoffs, may lead some Republican lawmakers to not rely on his endorsement for their re-election. Many congress members planning to participate in the purely political stunt of rejecting electoral votes cast by the states changed their tune following Wednesday's insurrection. That goes to show how little they believed in the narrative of a fraudulent election and instead sought to exploit it for political gain. Violence resulting from their recklessness seems to have shaken some lawmakers back to the reality of their actions, and after four years, we found the line in the sand. The party has some soul searching to do over the next two years, and perhaps they will recognize that the divisive and dangerous rhetoric of the last administration is not the answer.
The right answer for the United States is clear. Reject the inflammatory populist rhetoric that is often based on conspiracies and prevents constructive argument from the same perspective of reality. The vacuum of facts within the Republican party has now become deadly as it dangerously chips away at our republic's fabric. Legitimate disagreements on difficult issues need to happen in the coming decade. If sides cannot agree upon facts surrounding a problem, how are they supposed to debate their disparate paths to a solution? We can disagree on climate policy, but before we begin the discussion, there must be agreement that humanity is causing climate change. It is my sincerest hope that there will not be a part three to these articles. The American people deserve to be told the truth by their officials. Those that incited and took part in Wednesday's events need to be held accountable. The United States cannot continue on this path if it wishes to regain what it once stood to be for its citizens and others around the world looking for a place of hope. The notion of the city on the hill has been waning the last four years, and it culminated in Wednesday's insurrection that broke any pretence of American idealism. Let us hope our country does not have to see anything like it again.