US reports leave us shaken, not surprised; but there’s hope
"I look to my home country with a mix of sadness and resignation but also with hope."
Idon’t know what I expected from Thursday. A chance to do a few house chores before the next outdoor adventure; a walk with the dogs; a trip to the recycling centre... I didn’t imagine I’d wake up to reports of Trump extremists storming the US Capitol.
Reports got grimmer throughout the day - lawmakers had been evacuated; trespassers had been pepper-sprayed; a woman died after being shot. As of 6pm Wednesday (Eastern Standard Time), 13 people had been arrested and police say three of them had firearms.
The morning started with thousands of Trump supporters in Washington for demonstrations as Congress prepared to confirm President-elect Joe Biden had won the election. A mob later pushed past police at the US Capitol.
Photos show MAGA supporters posing in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and inside congressional chambers. The National Guard was activated, too late to prevent the first round of violence but hopefully in time to keep the peace from now on.
In my view, Trump fueled the bloodshed.
After months of falsely claiming the presidential election had been stolen from him, his response to the people urging him to call off supporters at the Capitol was to tell his faithful, “We love you. You’re very special...but go home.” Twitter, Facebook and Youtube removed a Trump video one
executive said: “contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence”.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse blamed Trump for the storming of the Capitol, writing, “Lies have consequences. This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division.”
Many of us are shaken but not surprised.
This is another moment in time, where, as an expat American, I’m incredibly grateful to live in New Zealand and incredibly sad to witness what is happening in my home country.
Friends and family are already feeling stressed, depressed and isolated, thanks to the pandemic which has claimed more than 350,000 American lives.
They’re tired of foregoing social gatherings, tired of wearing masks, tired of watching their children learn online rather than in school.
And then, another Trumpocolypse.
I emailed my aunt Leslie, part of the contingent of my family who are staunchly anti-trump (I’ve learned from experience discussing politics with the Trumpers is as pleasant, but not as productive, as a colonoscopy). She responded that she and my uncle were riveted to the TV.
“Horrifying. Scary. Mortifying. There are no words to describe our outrage and dismay. I am truly worried about getting through these next 2 weeks. We are going through a very dark time in this country. I am so sad and so tired of being scared and angry.”
We’re calling the Georgia runoff elections, which so far have Democrats gaining two more Senate seats, a beacon of hope.
Because of America’s political polarisation, incoming President Joe Biden would have great difficulty getting lawmakers to manage the most routine of tasks like approving Cabinet positions for his administration without Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
More than being a cause of America’s ills, Donald Trump is a symptom of what’s wrong.
For decades, Americans have been forsaking news sources that rely on facts, turning instead to outlets that confirm their biases; they fear each other; trust is gone.
In one of the richest countries in the world, people have been told there’s not enough for everyone, so get yours while you can.
They’ve been fed a diet of lies, feasting on so much mind garbage they can’t tell fact from fiction. Science has become secondary; tribalism is king.
I look to my home country with a mix of sadness and resignation but also with hope.
Hope that a new president will uphold the rule of law; value people who are younger, older, sicker and otherwise different from him; and (this is a big one) - speak in complete sentences using words beyond a 10-year-old’s vocabulary.
History shows us politics ebb and flow - societies can succumb to authoritarian rule, from leaders who place themselves above the law - but they can also recover: Napoleon Bonaparte installed himself as Emperor of France in 1804; today, Emmanuel Macron serves as the country’s democratically-elected president; Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco ruled for more than 30 bloody years until the 1970s; today, the country’s democratically-elected Prime Minister is Pedro Sanchez. And lest we forget, Adolf Hitler was elected President of Germany in 1934 with 90 per cent of the vote. Intimidation and fear of communism fueled his rise. Most Germans have sought to shed their shameful, racist political past, and today Angela Merkel leads Germany as part of a centreright party.
I’m hopeful America will find its centre again. That Republicans can step away from fear and divisiveness - hallmarks of Trump’s reign - and remember that polls show most of us consider ourselves moderate (35%) or liberal (26%).
We want to see an America where constitutional rights apply to everyone, not just a select few; where lawmakers cooperate, using science and expert advice to make decisions, rather than conspiracy theories and outright lies.
The lesson for us in Aotearoa is that political systems matter; campaign finance laws matter; how you get your news matters; science matters; and yes - kindness matters, too. We respect each other as individuals, but we are strongest when we work together.