What are we to make, from across the sea, of Trump supporters invading the U.S. Capitol building while Congress members were voting to install Joe Biden as the next president of the United States?
Is this ‘insurrection’?- a new civil war? a ‘revolution’?…
In the mind-numbing complexities and anomalies that is American ‘democracy’, this new episode in the rapidly foreclosing Trump era appear as a comedy of errors, by all parties.
A historic opportunity by Joe Biden and the Democrats to bring together the nation after 4 years of Trumpism, has been completely given away- to childish bi-partisanship, which has the potential to further divide a fractured declining nation. Trump’s devotees- many of whom are frightened at their loss of incomes, law and order, their loss of status, the confusing messages of the U.S. ‘Woke’ culture and many more pressures, are not going to go away. If they are now no longer able to attach themselves to a political forum that supposedly supports their frustrations, as Trump pretended to do, they will find other routes to assert their concerns- perhaps in more damaging ways.
The deletion of Trump’s historic postings and the removal of his capacity to post in the future, was a concerted effort by the major social media outlets. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey commented that the ‘ban is a failure of ours to promote healthy conversation’. While I am very clear that I personally find Trump’s rants and raving inappropriate, often judgmental, rascist and dangerous, and that he is guilty of war crimes in Yemen and Syria among other places ( along with numerous other American presidents) , I don’t believe I (or anyone else) has the ability to judge what is ‘healthy conversation’ for all others; assuming that such a thing as a ‘healthy conversation’ could ever be defined. For a social media tycoon to make such a global statement is both dangerous and indicative of the quality of intellect in such ‘high places’.
And it is unsurprising that most Republican voters feel that this presidential election was stolen from them given 1) the vast capacity for manipulating the electoral system in the United States; 2)four years of hype and paranoia from mainstream media that Trump won the last election because the Russians somehow manipulated voters and the voting system; 3) the global mainstream media’s consistent campaign to deride and demean Trump in any possible way ( not hard to do of course). and 4) the bizarre second impeachment process, simply designed to kick Trump and his supporters while he is down.
What the United States desperately needs now is a government that understands its role is to support the dispossessed, the poor, the sick and the unemployed, to live a fair and pleasant lifestyle. There is after all, more than enough to go round in the United States- even now. But instead we see the remaining U.S. health and income support infrastructures steadily being whittled away- the rich getting richer, the poor without hope and the U.S. electoral system dominated by what are euphemistically called ‘corporate donations’.. The dichotomy between the empty promises of those in power and those who need a better life there, are growing ever wider. That widening chasm leads to social destruction.
It is baffling why American society is so willing to ascribe to conspiracy theories -whether it be Joseph McCarthy and the internal communist threat, the Russians, the Chinese, or some other nation Americans have been taught to fear, or now, ‘insurrection’ from white supremacists.
Farcical , if it were not deeply disturbing, are Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House at Congress) and Hilary Clinton (ex Secretary of State) stating publicly their view that Vladimir Putin orchestrated the Capitol invasion. Either (hopefully) they are simply attempting to manipulate public opinion to think that somehow Putin is behind all of this, or more disturbingly , they actually believe their nonsensical and delusional statements.
While the invasion of the Capital building is certainly to be deplored, the response from Democrat congresspeople and lawyers has been extraordinary and hugely counterproductive to building truth and reconciliation in the United States. It is hoped that the parallels noted by Eric Rasmussen in his article about the Reichstag Fire of 1933 and the Capital building riot will turn out to be simply coincidence, but they are disturbing.
Is it their lack of education about the wider world and American history?; the efficacy of American mainstream media to lie with advertising and political brainwashing?; their centuries long addiction to violence? the insistence on show and appearance as more important than truth and justice?- or perhaps a mix of all those issues….Whatever the primary causes, Americans are in for a rough ride until they come to terms with their country’s contradictions, and learn the truth about what their country really has stood for.
Links
America’s Battle Over the Nature and Direction of Change Itself
Lee Camp: America Condemns One Violent Mob While Celebrating Another
https://www.unz.com/article/are-we-all-domestic-terrorists/
New Antarctica 