Editor’s letter

“This is not who we are.” That was the cry that went out from politicians of all stripes after last week’s deadly pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The behavior of the 8,000-strong mob was “entirely un-American,” read a statement from a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) deemed the violence the antithesis of “the American way.” President-elect Joe Biden said the scenes of chaos in Washington “do not reflect the true America.” Yet the people who stormed Congress weren’t some alien other, but everyday Americans who—fed a diet of conspiracy theories—believed they were doing the patriotic thing. They included the CEO of a data analytics firm from suburban Chicago, a Florida firefighter, the son of a New York Supreme Court judge, two Virginia police officers, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and an Olympic gold– winning swimmer who wore his Team USA jacket to the riot.

Far from being un-American, such explosions of brutality and tribal violence have long been a part of this nation’s story. Up to 750,000 died during the fratricidal Civil War, and nearly 4,000 African-Americans were lynched by white mobs in the Jim Crow South from 1877 to 1950. Today, violence remains a fact of American life. The U.S. has the highest rate of mass shootings in the Western world and a gun homicide rate 25 times higher than those of similarly developed countries. During the Capitol siege, young staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took cover in a conference room, barricaded the door, turned off the lights, and hid under a table in silence—survival tactics they had learned growing up with active-shooter drills in schools. We will never be able to treat the sickness that led to last week’s insurrection unless we recognize this is part of who we are. It might be America at its ugliest, but it is America.

Managing editor