Insurrection? This was simply a breakdown of public order
AMERICANS have absolutely no idea what a proper insurrection looks like. If they did, they wouldn’t be mistaking it for a disorganised, chaotic riot by Trump rabble-rousers and dunderheads in Washington on Wednesday. CNN went completely bonkers as images were broadcast of smashed windows, trashed offices and some backwoods-type idiot having the temerity to sit on Nancy Pelosi’s throne in her office on Capitol Hill. Poor aul’ Wolf Blitzer was on the brink of a coronary.
And CNN commentator Van Jones was keeling over into a nervous breakdown with talk of treason and rebellion. Jones famously burst out crying like a little boy on live television last November when it became clear that Joe Biden was going to give Donald Trump his marching orders.
As the greatest non-rebellion in the history of the world unfolded, Jones said the United States was on a glidepath to a possible civil war – ridiculous exaggeration on steroids. Pass him the tissues because he’s going to start blubbering again.
Americans have the most contradictory relationship with violence – no doubt based on unspoken guilt, given that every square inch of ground they own was taken by rifle and sword, or the threat of force, and at an enormous human cost to others.
Regular Americans own about 400 million guns and in 2018 almost 14,000 of them ended up dead, homocide victims as a result of firearms. Abroad, American military has imposed its will with ruthless efficiency, in South America, the Middle East and even more famously in Vietnam where, amongst many others, the My Lai massacre of more than 420 civilians still echoes shameful reminders down the decades.
THAT kind of violence, however, is what most Americans can live with. But bring an American to a camogie match and he thinks he’s landed into the middle of an old-style faction fight, where life and limb are at stake. Americans think big in all directions, with little sense of proportion, which means that Wednesday’s disturbances can’t just be called what it was – an embarrassing and ugly breakdown in public order which was never going to go anywhere.
No, it has to be a great uprising, because this is America.
There are two standout issues that occur following Wednesday’s events. One is the police – and how they initially disgraced themselves by failing adequately to secure the Capitol in the first place, and then how they demonstrated remarkable restraint, despite huge provocation, when the mob entered the seat of power.
One woman amongst the rioters was shot and killed by a police officer in circumstances that are questionable to say the least and many more would have lost their lives if other police had done likewise. Surely nobody is arguing that 40 or 50 dead Trump nutcases would be preferable to what actually transpired?
Tragically, one police officer died subsequently of his injuries.
Later the police, in tactics more familiar to Ireland and Britain, simply pushed the rioters out of the Capitol and away from the area in an exemplary fashion that prevented further loss of life. Again, who could complain about that?
It’s a pity American police didn’t adopt similar tactics when dealing with civil rights protesters more than 50 years ago, or Black Lives Matter demonstrators today. Such lack of restraint is based on racism that poses much more of a threat to democracy and the rule of law there than anything Trump or his brainless cult followers present.
The second compelling issue is whether Joe Biden can now bridge the great divide in America between progressives on the one hand and that enormous coalition of unreconstructed small-government conservatives and disaffected, blue collar, self-defined outcasts, who for one reason or another gave over 74 million votes to Trump, 47% of the electorate.
That’s the greatest existential threat to American democracy and exceptionalism. And, first indications are that Biden is more than up to the job. Former British ambassador to the US Kim Darroch – who was forced out of his job in 2019 after describing Trump as inept and insecure – says Biden has been pitch perfect since his election and it’s hard to argue with that.
After Trump’s four years of bluster, deliberate stoking of divisions, arguing with partners and allies abroad and taking a wrecking ball to US institutions at home, Biden’s principled, calm, ‘reaching across the aisles’ style is precisely the kind of vaccine required to restore American politics to rude good health.
Repairing relations with trading partners and military allies abroad will be the easy part. The real problems are at home.
Poverty is endemic in the US with 40 million people struggling to survive. That’s more than one in every 10, a figure that has remained steady since the mid-1960s.
The US jails more people than any other country on the planet, with 2.3 million behind bars – underprivileged black people hugely and disproportionately represented.
What played out before our eyes on Wednesday was nothing but the pathetic end of Trump demagoguery. It was entirely without substance in terms of real threat to American democracy. America has overcome much more than that.
Now is the time to dial back on excitement. We must refuse to indulge the impulses and charms of reality television.
Instead, the rioters and their Inciter-in-Chief Donald Trump must face whatever the criminal justice and political systems in the States consider appropriate. Things must take their course, including Trump’s possible impeachment, removal from office and/or criminal prosecutions. Insurrection? Gimme a break. Imagine what a few French farmers annoyed about lamb prices could have done to the place?