Assault on the Capitol
Comedian Shelley Berman once recounted a story about his immigrant grandfather being told that all the roads in America are paved in gold. After arriving, however, he learned three things. First, American roads were not paved in gold. Second, the roads were not paved at all. Third, he would be the one to pave them.
Watching the rampaging mob chanting Trump’s name and descending on the Capitol on my TV screen Wednesday, January 6, reminded me of that old joke and its bitter underlying truth. We can all somewhat relate to Berman’s grandfather’s experience in Trump’s America. It has been a nightmarish story of pain, disappointment and unmet expectations. Truly a monumental letdown.
The unexpected and shocking defeat of Hillary Clinton four years ago, and the victory of a brash American billionaire and reality TV star, the farthest thing from a career politician, was seen as the ultimate American Dream. This businessman was about to show corrupt DC politicians and ineffective government employees how to take on the challenges of the day. Finally, here was a strongman who’d solve America’s long-afflicted ailments.
We were told to ignore the protests of the scientists and armchair intellectuals, the so-called experts, and the liberal establishment. Never mind his shady past and disagreeable remarks over the previous decades. Don’t bother with the lack of transparency around his tax records, business dealings, and personal wealth. The missing records would actually show how good he is at conducting business, we were to believe. Donald Trump, a business-friendly Big Boss in the White House, was seen as the answer to a resurgent and increasingly confrontational China, the crimes in our inner cities, and our failing healthcare system with soaring medical bills. Wall Street was overjoyed.
None of these problems were fixed; instead, people’s worst fears have come true. For four years, Trump has assaulted the American constitution, aggressively bullied the courts, gutted institutions of American democracy, butchered federal oversight agencies tasked with reigning in unethical businesses, and backstabbed anyone who stood in his way or had the gall to publicly disagree with him. He has tossed aside military generals like local sports clubs change team captains.
Republicans, whose party he adopted for his 2016 run, let him do it all. In four short years, the 167-year-old party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Eisenhower, became the party of Trump’s agenda. They acquitted him of impeachment charges and let him run for reelection unopposed. When Trump decisively lost a free and fair election, Republicans allowed him to spread lies and conspiracy theories and file baseless lawsuits.
Out of options, Trump finally called for a coup in Congress, where the Senate was in session to certify the election results. He also pressured his own vice president to overturn the election results — a legal power the vice president does not have. And that four-year nightmare ended with the U.S. Capitol — the beating heart of American democracy — being taken over for three hours by white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. They waved the old Confederate flag, a poignant symbol of America’s painful racist past fast-forwarded to 2021, with a blinding pride. Five lives were lost.
America’s international humiliation is finally complete, total, and unmistakable. Not only was the country not made great again, as Trump’s overzealous campaign slogan promised, but America’s immediate future is bleak: It is dangerously sick (new COVID cases and deaths are shattering daily records) and seething with resentment (riots among the far-right and minorities remain ongoing flashpoints in several cities).
And we — citizens of a badly divided society — will have to build America back to virtue, vitality, and hope. We were told to expect gold. Now we have to start paving a new path.
Trump will be gone from the news soon. But Trumpism will not. What Americans must contend with is the fact that the rioters are not the “fringes” anymore; they are a growing force. A sizable number of Americans distrust and want to dismantle the government. Many of them get elected to the federal government regularly and actively pursue that goal. To them, the government’s power is seen as diametrically opposed to their own individual rights to live a rich, tax-free, carefree, utopian life. The keys to an idealized God’s country — with a Christian God at its helm.
These folks have been left behind by globalism and the tech economy. Neither political parties, nor the many billionaire philanthropists have found answer to their woes. Inclusive growth remains elusive. It is in such a corrosive, stagnant environment that Trump’s toxic mix of conspiracy theories and racism germinates and finds support. A faction of them descended on the Capitol earlier this week.
While decency, a sense of alarm, and a desire for “steady hands” may be bringing the Biden administration to the White House, the gap with a sizable portion of the conservative base is expected to grow. The alienation is now indelible.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” warned Lincoln. America’s deep ideological fissures are cracking its foundations. Ours is a country with a history of bigoted violence, yet America retains a prideful determination to be a global melting pot for all races, religions, and views. A seething intolerance on one hand, and a wide-eyed embrace of acceptance on the other — how shall we reconcile? How shall we heal?
The answer to that will decide America’s future.
