Democracy Under Siege?
What should and should not be done with President Trump between today Jan 6th 2021 and Jan 20th 2021 will be debated passionately over the next few days. Some groups are already calling for VP Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment in order to remove President Trump from office. Some are calling for a fast track impeachment. More opinions will continue to be cast by pundits in all sorts of media outlets. However the fact remains that what has already happened in Washington D.C. today cannot be undone. And I am afraid the ideology behind this is here to stay.
I watched with utter disbelief as the pro Trump crowds moved up the steps of the Capitol building, some jumping up the railings and eventually breaking in. The remarkable visuals moved from stunning to mortifying and surreal and quickly became horrifying. Members of Congress were being told to Shelter in place?? Gas masks are being distributed?! This can’t be real! It’s not a Hollywood movie. This was meant to be a routine constitutional procedure of counting electoral votes and confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory as the next President of the United States of America. I cannot describe the feeling as I watched these crowds (I say crowds because I’m still trying to struggle what category to put them in) walk into the senate chamber and pushing against doors that were being guarded by armed guards with members of Congress crouching under benches. I think I heard myself say something like “is this really happening in America?!” I pinched myself to ensure I had not woken up sweating in bed from a nightmare born out of the anxiety of Trump’s call for a “wild rally”.
Convinced this was real, I was reminded of watching another event unfold live on television exactly two decades ago in 2001. The fear I had watching the attack on American soil on 9/11 was of a physical danger, ruthless heartless terrorism and loss of life that shook me to my roots. It was an external danger that could potentially be stalled at the borders in future. (And remarkably it has been so far!) Today I watched with a different kind of fear. A fear that we have lost the soul of America. To an internal enemy. What I saw today left me sad, disgusted and fearful of the future. If 9/11 brought Americans together today has created more divisions.
America has already lost its respect in eyes of the world in many ways. For one it has lost the moral right to tell other nations not to violate human rights ever since we have seen the mobile phone technology unmask the grave injustices committed on African American citizens. Today it has lost the right to tell nations to stop squashing democracies. President G.W. Bush famously gave the Arab Spring speech once, how embarrassing will it be now if some Arab nation or African war lord or South American dictator starts lecturing America on upholding legal election results? Or when China tells America to stop interfering in Hong Kong?
It is hard to believe how much this country has changed since early 1990s when I arrived here. What is seen today is so contrary to the image of America that has brought millions to its shores from all over the world. Lady Liberty standing tall in the New York harbor is the first imagine of America that is sown in minds of children around the world. The values she symbolizes are ingrained on young minds. Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech. America the birthplace of democracy. The very definition of democracy. America the land of opportunity. America the leader in science & technology. America the country that sent man to the moon… “A small step for humanity but a giant leap for mankind!” America who fought to end slavery. America who started the fight for women’s rights. America who was the first colony to free itself from British colonialism. Yet she shed her blood fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Brits in WW2 to uphold democracy over dictatorship. Freedom over oppression.
Fast forward to 2020s… you see an America that is a victim of baseless conspiracy theories and political conmanship. Today Republicans tag Democrats as soy latte loving elitists and Godless hippies. People who are losing the country to immigrants. Democrats tag Republicans as racist, sexist or anti-immigrant. Trump supporters as uneducated deplorables who are homophobic, xenophobic, gynophobic, white supremacists.
It was only 48 hours ago that the cop who shot an African American in Kenosha Wisconsin on August 23rd 2020 was acquitted of all charges of any wrong doing. His action of shooting Jacob Blake 7 times (yes 7 times) was justified as self-defense because Jacob Blake had a razor like knife in his hands!! Today a wild unruly mob attacked the Capitol Building with the entire leadership of the nation in the same building including the current and soon to be Vice President of the country!! I didn’t see any quick action to disperse the mob. In fact the most shocking part of today’s events has been the absolute lack of security when the entire nation was on the edge for what was to happen in D.C.!! Why did it take so long to deploy the National Guard? In July 2020 the President tweeted an imaginary law that doesn’t even exist, to threaten protesters in Portland who vandalized a Federal building. Today he tweeted he loves the people who attacked Democracy itself! Later he even justified their actions as a natural effect of rigged elections! (Twitter & Facebook have since suspended the account of the President of USA for 24 hours so he can’t incite further riots! How embarrassing is that?) Now imagine if this was a group of Black Lives Matter activists? Or some immigrants or Muslim protestors? Would they had been given the opportunity to leave without snipers shooting at them? Or commandos descending upon them? I bet the National Guard would have been deployed in advance. Can there be a more blatant example of White Privilege?
How do I even define this event? Anarchists invading the Capitol building? Domestic terrorists threatening elected leaders of the nation? Trump loonies being puppeteers in the Psychological warfare he plays to use them for his own advantage? Trump inciting his army of goons for sedition? Or is this his idea of an alternative to military coup? If you cannot get the military to cooperate you use your followers to attack the Sanctum Sanctorum of Democracy itself?! A siege of the Capitol is a siege of democracy. All this to what end? Not to dethrone some ruthless dictator or a barbaric government. All this to overturn the results of a perfectly transparent legal democratic process because it did not go as per one candidates wish! Obviously there has to be a winner and a loser. But one candidate has crossed all civilized limits to satisfy his over inflated ego. And his party and its news media outlets have been enabling him by feeding his lies to the base.
Let us also not forget that this assault on democracy is happening in the midst of a surging covid-19 pandemic in this country. 1.85 American lives being extinguished by the virus every minute. 110.5 lives lost per hour. 2,653 lives lost per day. 18,572 deaths in last 7 days. 356,005 deaths since this pandemic started 10 months ago. And add a minimum of 12 or more victims by the time you finish reading this blog. Where has humanity gone? Where is the compassion? Today I saw banners saying Jesus 2020 being hung on the Capitol building by the mob. Is this the compassion of Jesus? Christian conservative Trump supporters are you listening?
In inciting the orchestration of today’s events Trump is simply hastening his own end. But sadly not without sowing the seeds of his sickening ideology in the minds of millions. They say united we stand and divided we fall. Is this then the beginning of the fall of modern America? Are we entering an age of anarchy? Or the advent of the Banana Republic of the United States of America? I want to believe it is neither of these.
I want to believe that despite the current Republican leadership having sold its soul to the devil there are more Americans who are not falling for it than there are those who are. For what happened in the state of Georgia last night is evidence that as long as people exercise their democratic right to vote not all is lost. It is true that bad leaders are voted in to power by good people by not voting. Yesterday more Georgians voted than ever before and sent two Democratic Senators to D.C.!!! This is a ground breaking earth shattering event for Georgia to have turned blue! Not just in the Presidential election but in senate races as well with one of them being a run off. Democrats in Georgia have historically lost their steam in every single run off election in its history. But not this time! In fact it made history sending its first black senator to the United States Congress!! I was part of a volunteer group called Asians for Warner & Ossoff. It was so heartening to see so many of us from all over the country volunteering for these candidates from a state that is literally thousands of miles away! Let this be a warning to the divisive elements in politics that the days of divide & rule and suppression of voters are over. Voters cannot be fooled nor taken for granted anymore. I also applaud the Republican government of the state of Georgia for not succumbing to Trump’s pressure tactics and upholding the true election results. This reinforces my faith that not all is lost after all! Despite the shocking events of this afternoon, Georgia proved last night that the American democracy is very much alive and kicking! Democracies are never perfect but they are far better than the alternatives and therefore worth fighting for. If you look at its history, the American democracy has survived periods of disillusionment in the past and always bounced back.
President Obama brought in A New Hope. The Empire Struck Back. But behold! The Jedi have Returned!!!
