Coup d’etat in America
Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, and other American leaders have called it an insurrection and domestic terrorism. In a phrase familiar to survivors of US military interventions worldwide, it was an attempted coup d’etat.
We never imagined seeing anything like it in our lifetimes, but there it was on our TV and smartphones: An attempted coup d’etat unfolding at the US Capitol, after Donald Trump incited them to march from the White House to Congress.
No thanks to the lack of commonsense gun control as well as the Capitol Police’s kid gloves treatment because they were mostly white, the insurrectionists and domestic terrorists freely broke through police barricades, freely waved their guns and threatened lawmakers and their staff, and freely vandalized congressional offices and the floors of both houses of the US Congress.
The world’s most powerful military and intelligence services appear to have been no match to the power of a demagogue who convinced throngs of people and even some senators and congresspersons to do his bidding: to invalidate and reverse the results of an election he has clearly lost.
Back in the White House, Trump’s press secretary condemned the violence the president himself incited and unleashed the day before. Trump is too cowardly to personally disown the men and women, many armed with guns and rifles, who he conned to march from the White House to the Capitol. Yesterday, he said he loved them. Today, his press secretary said he condemned them.
As I write this, no arrests have been made. No one has been held legally accountable.
It is quite possible that Biden is merely waiting for his January 20 inauguration before cracking down on the coup plotters, insurrectionists, and domestic terrorists, and ordering mass arrests. It might be too late by then. The apparent inability or refusal of the agencies of the US government to immediately investigate, arrest, and charge the rioters reveal the malleability and fragility of US institutions under a fascist president. Up to now, leaders of law enforcement agencies appear to be afraid of Trump and thus refuse to lift a finger to make any arrest, even as many top administration officials have started to jump Trump’s sinking ship.
If this happened elsewhere, US troops would’ve swooped down on the said Capitol to “save democracy,” perhaps even assassinating the leader of the insurrection and domestic terrorism. The world’s constable would have done it unilaterally or with the expressed wishes of its puppets, if America’s leaders wanted to.
How the post-Trump administration and Congress would treat Trump, his cronies and his cohorts starting January 20 would be important. Trump’s party, which styles itself as the champion of responsibility, national security, law and order, would be under the glare of the spotlight, whether they would defend Trump from possible arrest and prosecution. Conservatives and Republicans would have to disown, condemn, and help prosecute Trump now. Otherwise, they would be seen as champions of impunity, insurrection, lawlessness, and disorder.
Because nothing has been done in terms of prosecuting those who attacked the US Capitol, Trump is handed an incentive to do some more damage between now and January 20, the date he loses presidential immunity and the powers of the US presidency.
Would the US political and justice system hold Trump accountable?
Many have described Biden’s victory as a repudiation of Trump, but it remains to be seen when or if Biden would bring that repudiation into its logical conclusion: prosecuting Trump et al, undoing his most destructive policies from immigration to foreign affairs, bridging the wealth and income inequality between the likes of Trump and the millions he deceived, and addressing the problems that provide a fertile ground for tyrants and fascists at this time.
With Trump soon kicked out of the Oval Office, Biden would have the opportunity to stop the gaslighting of Americans and the undue blame placed on women, blacks, immigrants, LGBTs and the world for what ills America: broken criminal justice system, a broken immigration system, a broken health care system, low wages, high cost of education, institutional racism, misogyny, climate change, US military interventionism, an economic system that exploits Americans and other peoples, and a political system dominated by big money and legally allowed to be swamped by billionaires and oligarchs who wish to perpetuate the status quo. We can only hope that Americans would continue to organize themselves, and press Biden to do the right thing.
The recent events in the US are relevant to us too as well as to many other countries now led by Trumpian (read: fascist and tyrannical) presidents and prime ministers. Such leaders would not easily give up the powers lent to them by their people.
Americans did it by organizing themselves street by street, block by block, city by city, state by state. They mobilized throughout the past four years, exposing and challenging Trump’s criminal behavior, advocating system change and pro-workingclass reforms, investigating and impeaching him, and then later repudiating him on Election Day. Americans even voted out the Senate majority he depended on for his own personal protection.
Americans out-organized, out-mobilized, outvoted, and outwitted Trump and his cohorts. Misinformation proved to be no match to an independent-minded media, and a vigilant and organized citizenry who went after the main source of massive disinformation — Trump himself. He can no longer freely use the bully pulpit and social media to spread fake news on the grandest scale.
A philosopher once said that the world’s most powerful governments are actually paper tigers. It is true then as it is true now as we see the tyrants and fascists of the present. They can appear to be strong and could outlast us, but they turn out to be weak and hollow. They can do their worst, even attacking and mounting a coup against the very same institutions they used to attain and preserve power. And, ultimately, they can be defeated.
Americans did it, so can we.