By: Maribel Hastings and David Torres
By: Maribel Hastings and David Torres
As if it were the most recent installment of his cheap reality show, the followers of the cult of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the confirmation of the triumph of president-elect Joe Biden in the Electoral College in a clean election, legitimate and democratic.
The master’s hand – and voice – could be seen in the faces and movements of the worshipers of group violence, describing a kind of collective hypnosis , while its leader, with a smile from ear to ear, surely watched through a monitor and well protected the performance of his good and obedient boys and girls.
The founding fathers of the homeland, or at least some of them, must be rolling in their graves watching Trump trample on the Constitution supported by a horde of fanatics and 150 Republican legislators who have put their political interests before democracy and the well-being of the nation.
B Welcome to the new American political madness. And it’s not a movie, unfortunately. It is, in any case, the real face of a divided country, whether we accept it or not. It is about the two Americas that were born separate, the remains of a country that was never really united after the Civil War. Perhaps the union was just a myth justified by political discourse through the years and centuries. But as seen today in Washington, there has always been a real division in the field of events.
That such a spectacle occurred was not entirely unimaginable, since the arrival of Trump’s fans to the federal capital did not bode well, especially since their violence has been promoted and condoned by Trump with his feverish and false idea that his election was “stolen.” The funny thing is that they could break into the building so easily, despite the prevailing layers of security. One who is quick-minded and hails from places where dirty jobs are done from within, wonders if Republican lawmakers loyal to Trump and led by the embarrassing Texas Senator Ted Cruz had no role in facilitating access to the It disturbs the Capitol.
In such a way that the images of violence speak volumes of the reckless act of an even greater division. We are not surprised, of course, by this ominous spectacle, because we have seen this movie a thousand times in other parts of the world, especially where we came from, even in worse moments and in not better situations.
But although it is really interesting to witness this new chapter in the history of the United States –in this new American moment–, at the same time we are aware of the possibility of an exacerbation of violence against minorities, now from different fronts of society.
That is, we must accept that the “ Trumpism ”has not died.
Because it was truly nauseating to see how when the constitutional process began, Cruz was applauded as if was a hero for spitting the Constitution and opposing the traditional democratic and peaceful transfer of power based on lies and false allegations of electoral fraud.
The 150 Republicans Those who have promoted this move to prevent Biden’s legitimate triumph from being confirmed must be treated for what they are: traitors to democracy. And the Republican Party that created the uncontrolled monster that is Trump, will go down in history with this huge stain of having allowed the false script of the “stolen” election to get out of control.
And Trump, on Twitter, only limited himself to saying that they “remain peaceful”, when he has been the main promoter of the fraud lie, with the sole purpose of getting money from his hosts, and the main promoter of the violence that characterizes its fans.
That is to say, in all this mess there is the imperious desire of a President who does not want to leave power, not because of defending his followers, much less his nation, but because of the terror that must cause him to stop having constitutional jurisdiction and be, with it, judged by justice by multiple trials that you would face as a common citizen. It is already known that he uses everyone for his own benefit.
With this embarrassing and violent spectacle the Trump presidency has hit rock bottom, and with it a good part of the democratic tradition of the United States, which was considered the most just and sophisticated democratic experiment on the planet.
However, whatever they do, the 20 January at noon Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president of the United States. And if things are as they look, he will have a Democratic Congress.
Trump, his hosts and the mob of Republican legislators who years ago pledged their decency to serve a rogue will pass to the history for what they are: bad losers capable of betraying democracy if the results do not favor them. If they dislike democracy so much, they should consider moving to one of the dictatorships that their leader Trump defends so much. Russia wouldn’t be bad to begin with.
– Maribel Hastings and David Torres work at America’s Voice