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.”

Building A Multiracial Democracy in America

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16^th president of the United States, succeeding James Buchanan. Buchanan is generally ranked as the worst president in U.S. history for his tacit support of slavery and for allowing Southern states to secede, and Lincoln the greatest for abolishing slavery and preserving the Union.

One hundred and sixty years later, with Joe Biden succeeding Donald Trump as the 46^th president of the United States, we are witnessing history repeating itself. Biden may not dislodge Lincoln from his perch but it seems certain that the doubly-impeached Trump will displace Buchanan as the worst U.S. president ever.

More serious than ranking is the ominous parallel between the America that Lincoln inherited and the America that Biden has. The Civil War over slavery in 19^th-Century America has transformed itself into a Civil War over white supremacy in the 21^st.

America, and the world, breathed a sigh of relief when Biden won the presidency in a free and fair election. His immediate $1.9 trillion stimulus to vaccinate Americans and put sufficient money into the pockets of despairing millions unable to think beyond milk for their babies, bread for their sustenance and rent for the current month is already making a difference. Biden has picked seasoned professionals, not partisan hacks, to oversee his American “Marshall Plan.” Restoring decency and normalcy will take time after four years of indecency and autocracy but there is guarded optimism that good governance, accountability and morality will return under Biden’s administration.

But addressing such urgent issues as safely opening schools, climate crisis, immigration reform, wealth inequality and a global reset will falter if the administration and the American people do not confront the existential threat of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The armed mob that assaulted the foundation of our democracy on January 6^th was only a preview of what might recur if we do not confront this threat with the power of justice and the force of law.

Some myths, however, must be dispelled before domestic terrorism can be banished. First, that the “white” in white supremacy refers to all white Americans. That’s bigotry. Majority of whites reject the toxic ideology of racial superiority and do not subscribe to unhinged conspiracy theories. Second, that it’s the uneducated poor of rural America who form the bulk of white supremacists. Far from it. The January 6^th insurgents included lawmakers, police and military officers, middle-class urbanites, the wealthy and the privileged. Finally, that it’s an unchanging truth that Blacks do not vote even when the stakes are high. Despite Republican voter suppression and gerrymandering, it was American Blacks who were instrumental in delivering the presidency and vice-presidency to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It was also mostly Blacks who flipped the Senate for Democrats in Georgia, thanks to the massive voter enfranchisement effort by Stacey Abrams, continuing the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, who led voter-registration drives in the South in the ‘60s.

So, how can we help the Biden administration defeat white nationalism that is tragically present in every community in America?

By mobilizing, protesting and convincing our representatives to act. After Trump became president in 2016, a national organization called “Indivisible” with local chapters in thousands of cities inspired millions of us to march against Trump’s xenophobic and demagogic transgressions in favor of a more humane America. We connected, created communities and compelled changes.

Such mobilization and activism must continue if we want to legally defeat white supremacy and right-wing extremism before national healing can begin. As historian Will Durant reminded us, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.”

Christians and Muslims Find Common Ground Through MLK's Words

(You can also read the article here and here.)

"If you want peace, work for justice. That includes housing the homeless, ending the death penalty, organizing labor unions, standing up for minority rights, and countering rising Islamophobia in the U.S.”

So said Dublin-born San Jose Diocese Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, leader of over 50 Catholic churches in Santa Clara County, and the prime mover behind the Catholic-Muslim dialogue held at the Shia Association of the Bay Area (SABA) Center on MLK day, January 16.

Bishop McGrath quoted MLK to make his point: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” 

Bishop McGrath addressing the Christian-Muslim Interfaith Event

Speaking to an overflow audience of about 500 Christians and Muslims, he reminded them that “Xenophobia has always been a part of America’s social and political landscape ... But we have much more in common than what divides us. Both the Bible and the Quran list mercy and justice as foremost divine attributes. I ask each one of you to use your light to replace the darkness of hate.”

Aurora Solis, a Latina leader with San Jose-based ‘People Acting in Community Together’ (PACT) spoke of a co-worker who told her, “I am a Muslim. I am scared. What will happen to me and my family?” Her response: “I will be with you. My friends and I will register as Muslims if it comes to that. We will work with Muslims so we can become better Christians.”

Tahir Anwar, an Imam and a long-time Bay Area activist, spoke passionately of the Golden Rule, a common theme that unites the major religions of the world: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

He also urged those in the audience to "make a habit of visiting synagogues, churches, mosques and other places of worship," adding,  “Islamophobia poses a threat not just for Muslims but for everyone. If our phones are tapped, yours will be too, sooner or later. The Quran says we will have some good days and some not-so-good days. That is life. But if we work together, we will overcome.”

Imam Tahir narrated how he travels separately from his family when returning to the U.S. from a trip abroad. “I am questioned at such length and harassed by immigration and law-enforcement officials that I try to spare my children the humiliation I am often subjected to when I return to my country. So they travel a day or two before I do.”

Speaker after speaker reminded us of the importance of extending hospitality to strangers, not to be haughty but to associate with the lowly, the sick, the disabled, the unemployed and the underemployed, to cherish our diversity, to overcome evil with good, to not suffer injustice with silence but to engage in non-violent activism that can change the world for the better.

There is a moral momentum growing across America. On January 21, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, an estimated 200,000 women are expected to participate in the Women’s March on Washington. On a smaller scale, this symbolic march will be enacted in cities throughout America, including San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. 

As in other cities, too, San Jose city leaders recently approved a campaign to create sanctuary places in schools and churches were deportation sweeps may occur, while Santa Clara County supervisors allocated about $1.5 million over two years to provide legal aid for undocumented workers in danger of deportation.

On a personal level, it also struck me forcefully how easily Shias and Sunnis prayed, listened and shared meals together at this event, as we have been doing for all the decades we have been in the Bay Area. I am a Sunni because I was born into a Sunni family, and I find no hindrance to my visiting Shia mosques to pray when it is convenient to do so. Same goes for Shias who pray at our mosque at the Evergreen Islamic Center when it is convenient for them.

Contrast this with the terrible sectarian conflicts that plague some of the world’s Muslim countries in which Sunnis kill Shias with terrifying regularity and Shias retaliate in kind. It is clear that Muslim countries are in far greater need of Intrafaith, rather than Interfaith, events. We Muslim-Americans must find a way to play a larger role in eliminating the deadly sectarian conflicts between Sunnis and Shias.

The backdrop of the stage where the religious leaders sat at the SABA Center on MLK Day contained these words of Imam Ali (601-661), son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad: “Man is either your brother in faith, or your equal in humanity.”

These are MLK's words too, and the words of America's founding fathers, even if expressed differently. MLK's "fierce urgency of now" has taken on a significance no conscientious American can ignore without eroding the fundamental values that make us who we are as a nation.

Barack Obama and the Promise of America

Expectation was high, the symbolism heavy.

Forty-five years ago, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his profoundly stirring “I Have a Dream” speech on the Mall in Washington that changed America. Surely Barack Obama, a champion of change himself, would seize the moment with soaring rhetoric of his own to connect with King and inherit his mantle during his nomination acceptance speech.

In one of his wisest decisions, Obama chose not to compete in the rhetoric department with King, an impossible task anyway. Instead of soaring, he was down-to-earth. He had judged the mood of the American people perfectly and that sensibility turned his good speech into a great one.

America is hurting. Millions are out of work. Bankruptcies are multiplying. Families are selling off their possessions on eBay to put food on the table. Meanwhile, George Bush’s failed presidency continues to pour $54 billion dollars every six months on the Iraq war.

Against that backdrop, Obama made his case. He defined the American promise as one “that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have obligations to treat each other with dignity and respect. It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, to look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road …”

Obama attacked McCain for being out-of-touch with ordinary Americans and with the crisis the country is facing. “I just think he doesn’t know.” “… John McCain doesn’t get it.” Tough, uncompromising talk. It will be interesting to see what verbal calisthenics McCain performs to respond to Obama.

Even before he was done with his speech, the conservative chattering class was attacking Obama. Leading the pack was columnist Charles Krauthammer who has been recycling his obsessive notion that Obama is a narcissist “devoted to crafting, and chronicling, his own life.” The junior senator from Illinois has apparently nothing to show in terms of ideas and experience. What Mr. Krauthammer conveniently forgets is that the worst presidents in U.S. history came with hefty resumes (James Buchanan (1857-1861), Richard Nixon (1969, 1974), to name only two). Barack Obama has not walked the corridors of power in Washington long enough to merit the appreciation of neocons. How dare this black pretender to the throne rise to the highest office in the land, whines Krauthammer.

However, in this defining moment, America needs a president who maybe poor in Washington experience but rich in life-shaping experiences. From Hawaii to Jakarta to Los Angeles to New York to Nairobi to Chicago, Obama acquired a sense of purpose in life that sets him apart from politicians the pundits revere. He is uniquely qualified to bring about the change the country desperately needs. Voters are finally beginning to get it, even as John McCain and the conservatives and the chattering class don’t. Call it destiny, call it cycle of history, call it what you want, but after eight disastrous years, America is ready to move from the darkness of despir into the bright sunshine of hope, with president Obama leading the way. November cannot come soon enough.