Scott Swanson
Regardless of which end of the political spectrum one represents, the storming of the U.S. Capitol by protesters was reprehensible, in particular the cost of human lives. The tragic episode is being condemned, rightly, from all sides.
It’s one of the few things most of us can agree on, frankly, which is part of what got us here.
From a merely political standpoint, the fallout from this will be with us for the foreseeable future, as Democrats seize power in both the executive and legislative branches of our federal government. Whatever justification there was for Republicans’ concerns about how the presidential election came out was quickly dissolved in the wave of shock and condemnation.
Unfortunately, the fundamental tenets that should be driving our government and our people are lying in our dust as Americans storm forward in a flood of raw emotion and, increasingly, adherence to personality over principle.
There is no question that our president’s tweets and statements, intentionally or not, contributed to what happened in the capitol last week – the “desecration of the temple of the American public,” as conservative commentator Pat Buchanan put it. The results: five deaths – an Air Force veteran shot and killed; a police officer hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, dying later in the hospital; plus three other fatalities, one who died of a heart attack, another of a stroke and a third who collapsed due to an unspecified “medical emergency.”
Amid the firestorm of denunciations from all sides, we’ve heard that Trump and participants in the uprising were “traitors,” that this was akin to 9/11 or the burning of the capitol by the British during the War of 1812. It was an “armed insurrection,” an “assault on our democracy,” a “coup,” a “violent overthrow in our nation’s own capitol building” by “rioters, insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists.”
There’s talk of impeachment, of removing the president under the 25th Amendment.
Amid the justifiable outrage, we need to remember a number of things.
First of all, we need to define terms carefully. Hyperbole flows easily in the wake of what was undeniably a terrible day in U.S. history. But politicians, in particular, are quick to jump on an opportunity to ride the wave of public outrage.
While the break-in was definitely egregious on many levels, and while the details could arguably fit the definition of insurrection (Webster: “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government”), was it a truly a coup attempt – a “violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group?” (Webster again).
That is a stretch, and that’s why we citizens need to be careful as we listen to commentators and politicians decrying – though justifiably – what happened. Just because they are right in condemning what happened doesn’t mean they’re justified in calling for penalities and action not warranted by the evidence.
Certainly, our Capitol’s security needs some beefing up.
Second, our nation is increasingly losing sight of basic principles, as we more and more replace them with personality.
The rally on Jan. 6 was in response to a constitutionally mandated event: the certifying of the electoral college results, as dictated by the 12th Amendment.
When Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off in the presidential election, vying for the support of the nation, they did so under constitutional rules, which carry the obvious reality that one of them was going to lose.
Politicians commonly assure their followers that they are going to win, but Trump was talking as early as July about how he doubted the integrity of the election progress and that the only way the Democrats would win was to “rig” the vote and before the actual election had signaled he wouldn’t accept a loss. (USA Today reported last week that Trump had word one media organization said he’d used “rigged” in regard to the election 75 times since May).
When his challenges got to court, at least nine of the judges who rejected his claims were people he himself had appointed. Since Trump made it a point to select judges who were conservative constitutionalists, not activists, it would stand to reason that they just weren’t convinced of the evidence presented.
Those are facts, not fake news.
There is no question that Trump has fostered a personality cult, monopolizing national attention.
Despite his uncouth style, loose adherence to established facts and other perceived faults, Trump has represented to many, including those participants in the Jan. 6 rally, a commitment to values they do not see across the aisle.
What many in the mainstream media and those on the left seem to have ignored in their rush to condemn a president who has severely ruffled their feathers for four years is that he was elected four years ago by Americans who are vastly uncomfortable with the agenda that will be forwarded in Washington for the next two-plus years, depending on what happens in 2022.
This time Trump wound up with 74,222,958 votes, or 46.8% of the votes cast. That’s more votes than any other presidential candidate has ever won, with the exception of Biden. That’s a lot of people.
However, looking at the proliferation of Trump flags and paraphernalia visible in the crowd at the rally, at least among those who actually breached the capitol it appeared there may have been a blurring of the lines between love of country and constitution and love of Trump.
We all need to remember that the foundation of our nation is constitutional principles – not personality. When leadership is based on personality without the constraints of the structure provided by our constitution and laws, the end result will be a dictator, a king – or queen. It will be all about an individual. We may be subject to that in the areas of sports and entertainment, but it’s not a good idea if we want to keep what we have in government.
Third, social media have contributed to this to an extent that they and many of their users either don’t realize or don’t want to admit.
Facebook’s current stated mission is: “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.”
Twitter’s is: “to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly without barriers. Our business and revenue will always follow that mission in ways that improve – and do not detract from – a free and global conversation.”
Well, that sounds good, but we’ve all seen what happens when people unleash their half-baked ideas and venom, often shot straight from the hip, on social media. It might build community, but it’s not always positive community and it doesn’t always bring the world closer together. It can be ugly.
The problem is, while social media do good things in our society, there’s no question they played a role in this episode. So the social media and internet giants have cut President Trump off for the remainder of his term of office – and who knows what happens after that.
But the uncomfortable question is: Where do you draw the line on free speech? Courts have struggled with that for longer than any of us have been alive.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the silencing of Trump a “problematic” breach of the “fundamental right to free speech.” She’s right.
Free speech is a delicate thing, as, is becoming increasingly obvious, are all the liberties we have enjoyed in our nation.
Though the behaviour of the mob in Washington was egregious and those who violated the law should be punished to its fullest extent, we must be cautious that any new policies that come out of this are well-considered and not emotion-driven.
There’s always a temptation, certainly for those in power, to dial things back, to put strictures on the media that have carried the messages that have inflamed the masses.
But the media – the technology itself – are not at fault. The actors are people. And the delicate balance is to maintain the principles and the liberties that have made our country what it is in the face of those – regardless of which end of the political spectrum they represent – who abuse them to accomplish their own purposes.
They put us all at risk.