From the Battlefield of Gettysburg to the Storming of U.S. Capitol: Will American Democracy Survive?

A year ago today, America faced an existential crisis similar to the Civil War that raged from 1861-1865. But in a sense, the insurrection of January 6, 2021, in which ex-president Donald Trump tried to orchestrate a violent takeover of the country, was a greater threat to America than the Civil War because of its intent and purpose. The Republican Party, in thrall to a morally bankrupt psychopathic demagogue, went along with Trump’s incitement to the rioters to “fight like hell” to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the 2020 presidential election. The live-streamed attack on the U.S. Capitol, the bastion of our democracy, by the murderous mob known as Trump fanatics, aided and abetted by the conspirator-in-chief and by Republican sycophants, brought America to the brink. 

It may sound like a cliché, but Providence saved America from ruin on January 6, 2021, a day that, like December 7^th, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, will also live in infamy.

So, what now? What can we ordinary Americans do to ensure that January 6, 2021, never repeats, that the rule of law will still prevail in a viciously polarized country, that the tradition of peaceful transfer of power will continue to endure as the hallmark of our democracy?

Not much, really, unless the midterm elections this year propels Democrats to significant majorities in both Congress and Senate. How likely is that to happen? Not very.

The immediate issue at hand is applying the rule of law to the Trumpers who scaled the walls and smashed the partitions in the Capitol on this day last year.

 

Over 725 people have been arrested but only 71 – about one-tenth - have been sentenced so far. They include a company CEO, an architect, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, a gym owner, a former Houston police officer, a wealthy Texan realtor who flew her private jet with friends to join the insurrection, and a University of Kentucky student. One of the most notorious, Florida businessman Robert Palmer, was sentenced to 63 months in prison. Palmer’s tears of repentance did not sway the judge. “It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers is going to be met with certain punishment,” said the judge.

 

The elephant in the room, of course, is the ringleader and his acolytes. Unless Donald Trump and Republicans like Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others pay the price for their mendacity, instigation and active support of the insurrection, merely sentencing the fanatics and the foot soldiers will make a mockery of the law.

 

So far, not only has nothing happened to Trump, his star seems to be rising even higher among Republicans since his defeat. That is the reason why America’s experiment with democracy and the rule of law continues to be under assault, with no assurance that democracy will hold the fort.

 

From Lincoln’s Gettysburg exhortations to Martin Luther King’s march from Selma to Montgomery and beyond, America has faced one crisis after another with courage, resilience and fierce loyalty to the foundational values of our nation. 

When historians peel away the layers leading up to the insurrection of January 6, 2021, they will find at its core one dominant idea: The fear of white supremacists, overwhelmingly Republican, that America is slipping away from their grasp. The original sin of America is not slavery but white supremacy. This supremacy monster has now bared its fangs in its possibly final attempt to put all non-whites in their places and reinstall white supremacy back to the throne.

 

Will this work? The tragic truth, given how hyperpolarized America is now, is that we don’t know. 

Yet, if Providence has been kind to America whenever it faced an existential crisis, perhaps Providence will be kind to America this time too. But, as the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. It is up to us ordinary Americans who, despite our differences, still believe in our country as a shining city upon a hill, to make sure that government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”