Kenny Macaskill: If the US can hold an election, then so can Scotland
Be under no illusion, the events on Capitol Hill last week were sinister. This was neither just a bit of fisticuffs nor over-exuberance by some “good ol’ southern boys”.
Instead, it was highly organised and deeply threatening to American democracy.
It was meant to be intimidator y and it cer tainly was. Not just with five lives lost but with the traducing of a democratic chamber that’s normally bristling with armed officers and protected in innumerable other ways.
It also didn’t come about by chance but was planned and coordinated – the absence, or collusion even of some securit y officials, confirmed that in my view.
What happens in the USA affects the rest of the world and the deep - ening divide in the land, manifest in those pictures, is a threat to us all.
The actions of those involved, including the outgoing President, need investigated and addressed. Whether Trump will once again be impeached I’m sceptical about, as time is shor t and his abilit y to delay is great.
Others though will face conse - quences and rightly so, as the contrast in treatment of recent Black Lives Matters protests is stark.
It’s even historically so, when compared to past critical political moments such as the Democratic Convention in 1968, as anyone who’s watched the movie The Chicago S even will know.
It’s been a tough star t for Joe Biden and it’s not going to get any easier. The most worr ying aspect of the Capitol Hill events was the significant suppor t shown for it in opinion polls by Republicans.
Trump’s not a lone figure with suppor t from only a handful of extremists. For sure some senior Republicans have at long last distanced themselves from him. But not all.
More worr yingly 74 million peo - ple voted for him, knowing what he was like. He and his kind speak for them, even if much is lies, halftruths or frankly bonkers.
America’s split and it’s not going to come together quickly or easily. The abilit y of President Biden to heal the countr y is constrained by a ver y tight balance in Congress and cur tailed by Covid’s economic devastation.
It’s actually a recipe for inaction, when action’s what’s needed. Even in the event of winning through the political labyrinth, the new President faces the challenge of a Supreme Cour t that’s going to have a right-wing majorit y for years to come.
More worryingly, the political divide reflects deep -rooted changes in attitudes and even culture that will take years, perhaps even a generation to work out.
I recall being in Texas with friends whose father had been campaign manager for “LBJ”, even visiting Lyndon Baines Johnson’s home, known as “The Texas White House”, that’s now a national park. It’s easy to forget that he was once a Texas Senator and the state the deepest blue. But not now. Trump won there comfor tably. The issues then were civil rights and education and, for all his faults, Johnson was solid on them. Now the divide’s deep but it’s guns, abor tion and same -sex marriage that dominate. Change’ll come but neither soon nor easily.