The assault on Congress is a suicidal madness. But America’s crisis won’t go away with Trump
Unjustifiable and losing violence, this is how political capital goes up in smoke: an unexpected and undeserved gift to the Democrats. But to be honest, a political crisis that is the product of decades of de-legitimizing half of America and its leaders; months of leftist political violence that went unpunished; and an opaque electoral process, which has led almost half of the country – and not just Trumpians – to believe (rightly or wrongly) the election "stolen"
Incredible images from Washington, scenes we never wanted to see in the temple of democracy. But they also remind us that democracy and freedom are not something acquired forever. These are fragile achievements that need to be defended, taken care of, day after day, not only when they are directly threatened.
American democracy, in particular, in its being a grandiose experiment, a beacon to look at, has precisely for this reason known dramatic moments in its short history, much more than the sometimes farcical one of yesterday. It is a democracy that is always at stake, in which the highest degree of individual freedom corresponds to the highest degree of responsibility. So much so that the Constitution, recognizing "the right of citizens to hold and bear arms", in fact also recognizes them the right to rise up in arms when they believe that a tyrannical government is being established. A great freedom, but also a great responsibility, to be handled with the utmost care.
However, I would avoid summary judgments: it was not an insurrection, much less an attempted coup, which require completely different levels of organization, nor the end of American democracy, which has seen and overcome worse. It will have to be an investigation to establish this, but it seemed a spontaneous action, although of unprecedented gravity (we do not know that Congress was ever occupied) and subversive (it caused the interruption of a constitutional process).
Donald Trump has his responsibilities and will pay dearly for what we saw yesterday. From today, it will be more radioactive than ever. From today, it will be more difficult, regardless of the merit, for his reasons for electoral fraud to be heard and evaluated. The first effect is that the certification of Biden's victory in Congress will proceed more expeditiously, the "objections" to the votes of the electors in the contested states withdrawn, any discussion of the irregularities buried. It will be more difficult for anyone to defend, or just calmly evaluate his political heritage, which nevertheless presented many positive aspects; and it will be more difficult to support him in the future, should he want to run for the presidency again. It will be more difficult for him to find allies and supporters, among politicians but also in the world of media, economy and finance. Many who could have continued to support him will turn away.
If the narrow defeat, the election deemed "stolen" by a good slice of Americans (not just his constituents), the 74 million votes, left him a great influence on the Republican Party, and therefore the prospect of re-running the House Bianca in four years, it is very likely (not certain, but very likely) that the assault of a crowd of her supporters on the Capitol in Washington will spell her political end.
On the other hand, from November 4th onwards, despite still having a lot to lose, he decided to go all-in as his style, he played with fire, considering that the gravity of what happened required it. Right or wrong, he lost control of the situation. And finally, last night he shouldn't have let Biden get ahead of him in giving an official speech. He should have immediately condemned the ongoing Congressional occupation and ordered the intervention of the National Guard without delay.
Yesterday's boomerang risks going back for years and compromising the very political practicality of future leaders who want to collect his legacy, his themes, his battles: any doubts about the regularity of the electoral process will be criminalized; the social and political stigma on anyone who exhibits sympathy for him or his positions multiplied; the Democrats will undeservedly pass for defenders of the Constitution and the GOP, torn apart, through a painful process of purges and abjurations, the lost and disillusioned voters.
The raid on Congress is an unjustifiable and counterproductive act. But it would be intellectually dishonest to keep quiet about the other factors that ignited the political climate in the United States leading to yesterday's dramatic scenes. In these hours, of course, many will instrumentally blame Trump (and his allies in the GOP) with every responsibility, discharging themselves. But dishonest analysis will not help cure the ills that plague American politics and reconcile a deeply divided nation.
This political crisis is also the result of years of delegitimization not only of Donald Trump, legitimately elected in 2016, but of half of America, vilified, forgotten and humiliated long before his candidacy. The Democrats have been playing the de-legitimization of their opponents (and their constituents), whoever they are, for decades. The myth of the stolen election is ancient, but in recent times it dates back to 2000, to the disputed victory of George W. Bush, who seems to have forgotten how he was mocked and demonized. And it reaches the present day, passing through the Russiagate hoax in 2016, when an attempt was theorized and practiced – this yes coup, implemented from within the institutions – to overthrow or at least cripple the Trump presidency.
In the background, a cultural polarization, even before political, growing in American society: between the coasts and the interior of the continent; between metropolitan areas and rural areas. Without forgetting the threat of “Cancel Culture” , which we return to talk about on Atlantico with today's article by Professor Marsonet.
Disastrous consequences have also had the months of riots, fires, looting, "autonomous zones", statues demolished and political violence of the radical left, from Antifa to Black Lives Matter : violence that is also subversive that has gone unpunished, tolerated by the political authorities – citizens and state – and judicial, acquitted by the media. Often the mayors (Democrats) ordered the police not to intervene and to withdraw, even if police stations were attacked and city halls occupied; (Democratic) governors refused to call in the National Guard to protect the lives and property of their citizens, as well as the security of government buildings; often the prosecutors (also Democrats) did not prosecute those responsible for the violence. When federal buildings were stormed by rioters in Portland, Democrats and left-wing media accused President Trump of "fascism" for bringing federal agents to their defense. Even President-elect Biden, in condemning the violence, said that the "protesters" still deserved to be heard. And donations have come from the Biden / Harris Campaign to groups committed to freeing and clearing the few identified perpetrators of charges.
The big liberal networks spoke of "mostly peaceful" protests, while in the background in their reports you could see the cities being put to sword and fire. "Where is it written that protests must be polite and peaceful?", Chris Cuomo of CNN asked. And nothing to complain about when, in 2011, Democrats and left-wing activists occupied the Capitol in Wisconsin.
The impunity that radical left insurgents enjoyed last summer certainly encouraged the right-wing rioters seen in action yesterday. Political violence must always be condemned and rejected by everyone. If, on the other hand, it is tolerated and even legitimized and rewarded when it comes from only one side, then trouble begins.
Finally, as if all this were not enough, the ninety burden of an electoral process whose credibility has been undermined by making universal, under the guise of the pandemic, the vote by post – a unique precedent among Western democracies. Millions of votes in the mail arrived hours and days after the polls closed. With the aggravating circumstance, in many key states, of non-existent, unreliable, or at least less stringent voter identification procedures than those required for face-to-face voting. Not to mention the opaque scrutiny operations, unverified signatures and other disturbing episodes documented with videos and testimonies.
The great lesson that perhaps we still have time to draw (and also applies to Italy) is that democracy is based on a balance of form and substance that is more fragile than we think. The trust of citizens in the "system", its credibility, its concrete ability to protect freedoms and generate well-being, to make everyone feel accepted and entitled to express their ideas, is as important as its procedural functioning. If people begin to think that the rules we have set ourselves, the constitutions, the rule of law, are waste paper; which can be interpreted for friends as they apply to enemies; and that the democratic game is rigged, then the toy risks breaking.
The post The assault on Congress is a suicidal madness. But America's crisis won't go away with Trump appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/lassalto-al-congresso-una-follia-suicida-ma-la-crisi-dellamerica-non-svanira-con-trump/ on Thu, 07 Jan 2021 05:07:16 +0000.