Stress-test for democracy #2 A coup d’etat with bloodshed

China and Russia had a big laugh yesterday when they heard the news of the rebellion taking place in a country which so likes to tell others how to have a just and democratic system. They and several other countries will use the incident to suggest America is in decline. And perhaps they have good reasons to believe so, because the majority of people do not know any more whey their ancestors left the European continent and what their hopes were to found a new nation.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio agreed:

“There’s nothing Vladimir Putin could have come up with better than what happened here. It makes us look like we’re in total chaos and collapse.”

“I think politics has made us crazy!”

he added.

“Everybody in this country has lost their minds!”

A protester holding Pelosi’s office chair

In Europe many people were afraid Donald Trump would not easily give in, and even would not mind trying to roar people getting them so far to create a coup d’etat for him. In America, there were also already advance warnings of the protests and the possibility of violence which makes it so strange no better measures were taken to avoid what we could see yesterday.  Now it looked as if the Capitol’s own police was looking under-prepared and overwhelmed. With wonderment and disgust all over the world, people could see how riots began Thursday morning and Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, messing up House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, clashing with police officers and looting items.

“We will never concede,”

continued Trump and told the mob that their voice will not be silenced.

The mob tried to find its way into the Capitol along all sides. Inside lawmakers and reporters had been asked to evacuate, shelter in place and put on gas masks. When they also heard lots of gunshots many of them were afraid.

Congress’ counting of the electoral votes was halted amid chaos as police evacuated lawmakers as pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the Capitol. One senator – Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley – said on Twitter some staff scrambled to “rescue” those mahogany boxes as they left the Senate floor.

Afterwards when lawmakers had resumed the special Congressional session meant to confirm the presidential election results, and Joe Biden’s win, speaking in the Senate, Republican Senator Ben Sasse blamed Donald Trump specifically for today’s unrest.

“This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division,”

Sasse said.

Vice-President Mike Pence said:

“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins and this is still the People’s house. As we reconvene in this chamber, the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy for even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism.

It is not so sure if Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is right to say that those people who stormed the Capitol failed

“to disrupt our democracy”

The balance until now: four people died after that great mob stormed the Capitol to protest the Electoral College’s voting to certify president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Many state leaders condemned the rebellious attack on the Capitol and at last we are hearing also some republican voices condemning what happened and letting the world know that they too find it a disgrace what happened.

Yesterday is really a black day in the history of America.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said:

“we can now add January 6 to the very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy”.

“This temple to democracy was desecrated,”

he said and was very well aware how people from outside the United States now would look at that nation.

 “The world saw Americans’ elected officials hurriedly ushered out because they were in harm’s way. The house and senate floors were places of shelter until the evacuation was ordered, leaving rioters to stalk these hallowed halls.”

He also said they mourn the loss of life,

“This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away. A final, terrible, indelible legacy of the 45th president of the United States – undoubtedly our worst.”

Schumer adds that these attackers cannot be called protesters.

They are “domestic terrorists” who “do not represent America”,

he said.

Former President George W Bush has issued a statement on the “scenes of mayhem” unfolding in the US Capitol.

“It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight,”

the Republican wrote.

“This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic.”

Bush continued, saying that he was

“appalled by the reckless behaviour of some political leaders”

since the presidential election, but stopped short of calling out President Trump or his supporters by name.

In his own statement Republican Senator Mitt Romney went a step further, condemning yesterday’s

“insurrection, incited by the President of the United States”.

Those who support Trump, Romney wrote,

“will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy”.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her statement, called the attack on the Capitol a

“shameful assault” on democracy. “It cannot, however, deter us from our responsibility to validate the election of Joe Biden.”

Good to notice they were smart enough to work through the night and to get their purpose accomplished.

“We also knew that we would be a part of history in a positive way, today, despite ill-founded objections to the Electoral College vote.

“We now will be part of history, as such a shameful picture of our country was put out to the world, instigated at the highest level.”

Pelosi’s office was vandalised during the mob attack. One protester was seen carrying her lectern through the Capitol.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Protester with the Speaker’s lectern

It is good to notice that now some more republicans dare to speak out against Trump. North Carolina Senator Richard Burr placed the blame for this shameful day on Trump.

“The President bears responsibility for today’s events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point.”

Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming also said there was

“no question that the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”

Her fellow congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State yesterday found the incidents

“unlawful and unacceptable”

as she urged Trump

“to condemn and put an end to this madness”.

But Trump continued throughout the day calling the people to defend their nation and to defend their right, fighting against those who stole the election.

Colorado’s state Republican leadership also condemned the mob attack,

“just as we condemned the actions of protesters at our own Colorado State Capitol this past spring” amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

And the national Republican Party communications director Michael Ahrens wrote on Twitter that the attack amounted to

“domestic terrorism”.

“Our soldiers have died carrying the American flag into battle for our freedom. To see that flag used in the name of unfounded conspiracy theories is a disgrace to the nation, and every decent American should be disgusted by it.”

Twitter required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier on Wednesday

“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, DC, “

“for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,”

the social platform said.

“If Trump does not remove the three tweets in violation, the account will remain locked.”

And as such today the account was still locked and Twitter also warned that future violations of integrity or threat policies

“will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account”.

Facebook also took action against the account of Donald Trump and reacted:

“The violent protests in the Capitol today are a disgrace. We prohibit incitement and calls for violence on our platform. We are actively reviewing and removing any content that breaks these rules.”

The social media giant Facebook also opted to bar President Trump from posting for the next 24 hours.

Former President Barack Obama said history would remember today’s attack,

“incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation”.

But he is aware that the nation could have seen enough signals of what would come up to them.

“… we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise,”

he added, saying the “fantasy narrative” of Republicans and their “accompanying media ecosystem” has misled their followers about the truth of the election.

“Now we’re seeing the consequences, whipped up into a violent crescendo.”

Obama called on Republican leaders to “choose America”, and said he was heartened to see many speak up today.

“Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honourably.”

The U.S.A. neighbour was shocked and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “Canadians are deeply disturbed” by the “attack on democracy”.

New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern tweeted that

“democracy – the right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully – should never be undone by a mob”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she felt “angry and also sad” after seeing images of the violent scenes, while other European leaders also voiced their condemnation of the attack.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also called on Trump supporters to

“stop trampling on democracy”.

“The enemies of democracy will be pleased to see these incredible images from Washington DC. Inflammatory words turn into violent actions.”

French President Emmanuel Macron wants us to believe

“What happened today in Washington DC is not America,”

but then we would love to see the true face of contemporary America, of which we have the last few months seen more pictures of increasing division and racism.

Macron still may “believe in democracy”, like many of us do, but to accomplish such rightous democracy in the United States of America seems further away than close by. Macron wants to assure us and says:

“We believe in the strength of our democracies. We believe in the strength of American democracy.”

It is up to America now to prove it can be a worthy democracy!

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Preceding

Stress-test for democracy #1 Storming of the Capitol in Washington

To protect our democratic system #1 Danger of fake and malicious social media accounts

To protect our democratic system #2 Online platforms

Donald Trump his America

2020 in view #2 The 45th president of the U.S.A. not willing to go

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