Rabble-rousing politics can debase democratic values, and the proof is Capitol’s ‘insurrection’
On January 6 last year, thousands of Americans formed a mob and forced their way into the US Capitol in Washington. The joint session of Congress was at that time trying to formalise the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The rioters assaulted police officers and vandalised property as the complex went into lockdown. The march to Congress, called an “insurrection”, followed provocative speeches by outgoing President Donald Trump who refused to accept his defeat. Trump told his supporters, “You do not concede when there is theft involved”, and asked them to go to the Capitol but did not join them. Trump escaped impeachment by a whisker but the question is asked even today: If this is a court of law, did Trump cross the line? The violent attack was the culmination of a series of incendiary exhortations that marked Trump’s presidency. It also fundamentally changed Congress and raised concerns about the resilience of American democracy. Democracy is perhaps the scapegoat for the real ills that plague the United States — extreme economic inequality, brittle race relations, trigger-happy gun policies, issues of social exclusion and, of course, the tussle for power between the elected administration and the mammoth industrial complex. Trump ensured the transformation of the Republican Party into a forthright right-wing association harbouring extreme views about inclusivist politics. If the Democrats were unprepared for the extent he could go to in riling up the public, traditional leaders among the Republicans were equally flustered at one individual sweeping the rug of complacency from under their feet.
Yet, when Trump stirred controversy, it was attributed to the democratic right to freedom of speech. Just like taking the Fifth Amendment to avoid telling the truth or using self-defence as an excuse for buying a gun is seen as evidence of a thriving American democracy. And yet, when Trump acted divisively when the vote went against him, and when January 6 happened, Americans did not know how to respond. It was the kind of unrest they had till then read about in papers or saw on TV happening in far-off lands; it was now happening right in the middle of Washington. January 6 is evidence that rabble-rousing politics can debase democratic values but was still insufficient to derail democracy completely. Opinion polls screamed that people’s belief in democracy was waning, but their politicians were meanwhile trying to respect that “ideal”. The “insurrection” had led to a call for setting up a military quick reaction force but the people’s representatives vetoed it. Surprisingly, it was a Republican duo, a Senator and a US Representative, who issued a statement insisting the Capitol Complex must remain the “responsibility of federal civilian law enforcement”, and adding: “We cannot and should not militarise the security of the Capitol Complex.” That should answer the cynics even though the American people are still in two minds whether the “insurrection” was an attempt to undermine democracy or the result of dangerous partisan politics.
