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| Police and Trump Supporters face each other at Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021 |
Just two weeks before Biden's inauguration, Trump supporters rioted and broke into Capitol Hill not only a physical sign of violence but a national alert that our democracy is very fragile. Today, January 6th 2021, Congress came together to verify election results only to be put in lockdown a few hours later. Trump supporters came prepared with riot gear and pushed back against officials, through barricades and with the use of ropes entered capitol hill. Carrying the confederate flag, they stormed through the halls and one even took it upon himself to sit with his feet on his table in the office of Speaker of House, Nancy Pelosi.
Soon, 2 bombs were found and one woman was shot who was later pronounced dead. Many people demanded that Trump send these people away and instead of condemning the protestors, Trump agreed with their cause, that the election was rigged and stolen, and claimed, "Go Home. We love you. You're very special..[] I know how you feel." As we have all seen in the past couple months, Trump has chosen to fight the voice of American democracy and the election results and leaves no chance of a peaceful transition of power. Many supporters left feeling powerful as they walked past security guard free handed and approved of by the President. Among many others, today's events leave me speechless. We first handedly saw the fragility of democracy. Today's events displayed the extent to which white privilege exists in this country and the blind eye Trump and his supporters have turned towards it.
We ended of last semester with various discussions over the balance of power. Over Trump's presidency the support of Senate has given him a large amount of power. Whether it be the re-count of election results or his acquisition in the impeachment trial, Trump has grown more confident in his antics knowing that the Republican majority in Senate will always come to his aid.
What did today's events signify and what should be the next steps from Republican leaders?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-07/how-did-pro-trump-protesters-get-into-capitol-hill-washington/13038568
https://time.com/5926883/trump-supporters-storm-capitol/
7 comments:
I think the actions of the trumps supports convey the disunity within American politics. The fact that one side's extreme members would go through the effort of attempting to stop the transfer of power. The worst part is that these people think they are fight for democracy. I really hope that republican will distant themselves from the trump and his radicals once he leaves office. If not I think the party may break into or have major realignment.
Yesterday's events were absolutely mind boggling to me. To say "I love you," to a group of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, etc., is deplorable. Four people died as a result of this raid on Capitol Hill, and it is disgusting that this behavior was actually encouraged by the president, his son, advisers, etc. There are a lot of "what-ifs" that are up to analyze regarding yesterday, one of the most prominent question being: what if these people were a different race? I think it makes sense that today, Speaker Pelosi and [now Majority Leader] Schumer have called for Trump's removal from office (and threatened a SECOND impeachment trial). I do hope that January 20th will be a peaceful day, with an orderly transition of power.
On a slightly different note, at least Trump's Twitter account is locked now!
It's apparent that the actions that occurred yesterday are a reaction to the small minority of Americans that are loyal to Trump and Trumpian nationalism. The blatant power grab and rejection of logic is a disturbing and terrible sight to see (even though just a couple thousand attended), it is terrifying to see such a result based on fraudulent claims made by Mr. Trump. I think it's also interesting to consider the parallels made to the BLM protests in the summer- specifically in regards to the lack of physical push back from the police officers. You can't know if this was intentional or not- but it's still interesting to consider.
I think the events that were televised yesterday left the whole country and world in shock and completely opened the eyes to many Republican leaders that Donald Trump is simply unfit to be the president of our country. Trump's actions in his "Save America March" motivated the actions of these domestic terrorists by saying phrases like "We will never concede." He has to lead his following into believing a false narrative that the election was stolen and taken from him by Joe Biden and the government. In his Twitter video that was soon deleted addressing the terrorists telling them "[to] go home. We love you, you’re very special” is very unfitting for the person who is supposed to keep peace in our country. I think this also attack causes many questions to be asked about why there seemed to be such little police resistance in comparison to the resistance seen in the Black Lives Matter Movement and why it took so long for the national guard and the DC police to intervene. While it's good to see the resignations of several members of Trump's personal cabinet and the DC police chief we are still a long way from preventing a future siege and attack on our democracy like what happened yesterday.
The events that occurred last week were shocking to me. Not only is it a threat to democracy, but it opened up my eyes to how authentic Trump's supporters are. Listening to video clips from the capitol, it is apparent that these people truly believe Trump won the election. Now most of these people are complete idiots, but it takes more than just idiocy for people to commit such a crime. It also takes radicalization. The constant source of false media on the internet is fueling the polarization on the internet, which is radicalizing so many of these supporters. Media sites such as facebook are leading people down deep rabbit holes, slowly feeding them more and more polarizing articles until they truly believe in it. One sad example of this is the woman who was shot at the capitol and died. It was later found that she used to be an Obama supporter, however was radicalized by social media sights like twitter. She was an avid Fox News Watcher, and she began tweeting about conservative conspiracy theories. She then started tweeting with a republic news source Info Wars and eventually then with QAnon. Its incredible how the internet is radicalizing these supporters and I think that is the root of this dangerous problem. If we want to solve it, I think it is important that social media sights crack down on fake news. In regards to Trumps accounts that have been banned, I know many conservatives are angry about "the precedent it sets" but I am in support of condemning fake news to make our world a safer place.
The events of January 6th will live on in infamy. The actions of Trump supporters who participated in it, supported it, and Trump himself are absolutely disgusting and should not have been brushed over as much as they were. The events signified a lot of things. Firstly, it showed how ununified the United States truly is. The fact that in our free nation, an entire faction of people refuse to accept the democratically elected results depicts clearly how severe the divide of our country is. Additionally, the ambush further illustrated institutionalized racism in our country. When individuals participate in peaceful protests for the Black Lives Matter movements, they are tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets by police. When radicalists violently breach the Capitol building, they are given blankets and waters from those very same police.
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