On September 11th, 2001, the unthinkable happened to the United States of America. Terrorists led an attack on the homeland, created chaos and hysteria by crashing two Boeing 767 planes into the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
Tremendous damage was done to both buildings but it didn’t occur to anyone that the twin towers would collapse in less than two hours.
Twenty years later on January 6th, 2021, another unthinkable incident occurred.
The United States of America’s capital building was attacked and taken over by insurrectionist Trump supporters incited by GOP elected officials, including Donald Trump.
Not since 1814, during the War of 1812, has the United States capital been overrun. The difference is that in 1814 it was by a foreign government. In 2021 the attack was incited, financed and organized by American citizens.
Like September 11th, 2001, the question is whether the attack created fatal and irreparable damage to the nation to the point where it’s just a matter of time before the countries system of government falls.
Unfortunately, the answer to that question might be yes. The cracks in the nation’s democratic institutions have not been healed and remain under tremendous pressure from conservative American elected officials, extreme right-wing organizations, and foreign propaganda campaigns. The damage to the nation’s political infrastructure may be greater than people are aware of or are willing to admit.
January 6th must not be seen as a singular event but the consequence of a series of internal attacks made by leaders who ironically took an oath to uphold the constitution. Paul Harvey once said, “If America ever falls, it will be an inside job.” He may be right.
In words which echoed the sentiment of George Washington’s farewell address, Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University, said, “Democracies used to die at the hands of men with guns. During the Cold War, three out of every four democratic breakdowns took the form of a classic military coup. … Today, democracies die in a much more subtle way; they die at the hands not of generals, but of elected leaders, presidents, prime ministers who use the very institutions of democracy to subvert it.”
Joe Biden might be the right person for this time, but he will only be able to assuage a still festering wound unless he finds a way to confront what remains an internal national security threat. His sense of optimism at times reflects an Americanism which can be pollyannaish.
There are lingering after-effects that must be addressed.
As of March 4th, the nation’s security apparatus was on stand by due to credible threats that another attack on the capital was imminent. Today the capital remains surrounded by barb wire and the national guard.
Despite lack of evidence, millions of American citizens have bought into Trump’s big lie of a stolen election.
Almost fifty percent of people who called themselves Republican supported the insurrection.
Congressional hearings on the insurrection revealed that it was highly organized and well-financed.
There are accounts that Congressmen were providing reconnaissance of the capital to some of the rioters the day before the insurrection.
One hundred and forty-seven Republican representatives refused to certify the election of Joe Biden.
A poll conducted by Ipsos found that while the majority view the riots as a political coup, 19% of Americans backed the protesters, and 31 percent believed the protest was necessary to protect the nation. These stats represent a significant segment of the population.
Unfortunately, one of the United States’ major political parties has taken on the attributes of a cult and has morphed into a bastion of violent right-wing militia, QAnon, white supremacists, and religious fundamentalism. The segment of the population that adheres to this is not insignificant.
The recent CPAC convention served as an obscene liturgical exercise designed to enhance the worship of Donald Trump, including a golden statue of him in the lobby. During that convention, Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue, an otherwise intelligent man, regurgitated the big lie by saying that Donald Trump is the rightful President of the United States.
At a time when political leadership and integrity is needed, Senator Mitch McConnell criticized Donald Trump for inciting the January 6th insurrection but nonetheless, said he would gladly support the former President if he became the nominee of the republican party. McConnell is a man who would rather be the majority leader of a failed democracy than the minority leader of a thriving nation. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in an attempt to add an air of legitimacy to the big lie, perhaps to please his wife who supported the protest, is attaching himself to the lunacy of Donald Trump’s lie about the election being stolen.
These examples are not a fringe segment of the electorate but a significant portion of the population.
It is a fair question to ask whether there is an off-ramp on this road toward perdition.
The answer may lie in four areas.
First, corporate America must continue its decision to defund those officials who through their actions undermine the American system of democracy.
Second, there must be a political cost for those who instigated the insurrection and refused to certify the election results of 2020. The cost cannot merely be the canceling of someone’s access to social media; it must occur by an electoral rejection of those who put the nation’s foundation at significant risk. The lack of a political and perhaps legal cost will provide cover and permission for future violent attempts by those who don’t agree with the legal results of an election. Attention must be paid to elected officials, such as Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who continues to parrot foreign propaganda about America’s elections.
Third, since many people who supported the insurrection claim to be Christian, it is time for the mainline church to confront the fringe theology that has given cover for false ideology that credentialed the rise of the former administration.
Lastly, a 911 style commission on the January 6 insurrection is critical for the goal of accountability. While the GOP will attempt to block this, mainly because of fear that it’s complicity will become self-evident, it must be instituted at any cost so that every participant in this egregious act, including members of Congress, are named, charged, indicted, tried and imprisoned.
Without clear accountability, the insurrection of January 6th, will not be a unique event but a recurring one that will eventually succeed.
The call for unity by President Biden is naive if he defines it as kumbaya with a GOP that put the country on the brink of collapse. The rejection of the Covid relief bill by every Republican Senator and congressperson should serve as a wake-up call to the administration that the GOP is not interested in bi-partisan governance.
How apropos are the words of George Washington when he said, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
The nation received a tremendous jolt on January 6th. The question is whether it fatally wounded the epitome of democracy in such a way that its collapse is inevitable. America won’t cease to be a military or economic power any time soon but like the twin towers after it was struck by terrorists the American system of governance is now under tremendous strain.
America is not beyond repair, but neither is it immune to the forces that have corrupted and ended democracies of the past.
During a memorial for people who succumbed to the coronavirus, President Biden told the nation that “to heal, we must remember.” That is true as the nation turns the corner on the pandemic. It is also true for the country to come to grips with the January 6th insurrection. No one thought the United States of America would experience an insurrection but it is critical for the nation to remember how close its symbol of democracy came to collapsing.