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Hatriots
Well, that was a day, wasn't it? I unwisely checked my phone far too early NZ time to see what was going on, and ended up watching the entire day and night on livestream on four hours' sleep.
I've visited the Capitol. It was quite an experience. New Zealanders, with our tiny population, are under no illusions about the amount of power we wield in the world, which is basically zeroish. In the US it's the other way around, and when you visit DC, boy howdy do they make that felt. In the Capitol you really feel the heavy and solemn machinery operating the most powerful country in the world.
And that's why seeing people break into the Capitol is so shocking. People ambling around the Senate floor, sprawling in the Speaker's chair - it cuts to the heart of that power. Because a country is only a country, with political institutions and laws and codes of conduct, when people agree it is. Seeing that overturned with such ease is deeply disturbing.
What's really important, however, is not the splintered glass. It's keeping a steady focus on who is really to blame. I have no love for the people breaking in, but they're the pawns. It's Trump that encouraged and enabled this, both today and in the years before.
And the sedition was instructive in other ways as well. It was impossible to miss the difference in the way the police handled the white rioters with kid gloves in stark contrast to their behaviour towards BLM protesters. It was shameful, as were the actions of the DC police in actively letting in the rioters, standing by as they attacked the Capitol and even posing for pictures with them. It beggared belief. My favourite online comment of the day was "I knew white privilege was a thing, but I didn't know I could break into the Capitol and sit in the Speaker's chair." Quite.
The reaction of the protesters outside the Capitol was also instructive. Despite the astonishing gentleness of the police response, the protesters were incredibly indignant that the police blocked them at all. No doubt for most of them they'd spent an entire lifetime without ever having to worry about what the police might do to them. The contrast with the BLM protesters couldn't be more clear.
What's more, the Trump fans thought they had received far rougher treatment by the police than the BLM protesters had. This is patently far from true, but it's not really the Trump people's fault that they think this way. Social media steers people into ever more separate silos and they had probably never been offered the footage of the BLM protests that would have proved them wrong.
After all that, you'd think the shock to democracy would bring the Trump-enabling Republicans to their senses, wouldn't you? Wrong. Sure, a few decided not to take the appalling step of contesting valid votes, but for most of them? Meh. Business as usual.
So what needs doing is obvious. Start impeachment proceedings for Trump immediately. Arrest the people carrying out the sedition in the Capitol. Do something substantive about the horrendous racism of the police. Regulate social media to stop it damaging the country through division for the sake of profit. And as soon as Biden is sworn in, close the legal loopholes that have allowed an unscrupulous President and Republican Senate to damage democracy so deeply. The most shocking thing of all? While I'd like to think all of those obvious things will happen, my confidence that they actually will is close to nil.
I've visited the Capitol. It was quite an experience. New Zealanders, with our tiny population, are under no illusions about the amount of power we wield in the world, which is basically zeroish. In the US it's the other way around, and when you visit DC, boy howdy do they make that felt. In the Capitol you really feel the heavy and solemn machinery operating the most powerful country in the world.
And that's why seeing people break into the Capitol is so shocking. People ambling around the Senate floor, sprawling in the Speaker's chair - it cuts to the heart of that power. Because a country is only a country, with political institutions and laws and codes of conduct, when people agree it is. Seeing that overturned with such ease is deeply disturbing.
What's really important, however, is not the splintered glass. It's keeping a steady focus on who is really to blame. I have no love for the people breaking in, but they're the pawns. It's Trump that encouraged and enabled this, both today and in the years before.
And the sedition was instructive in other ways as well. It was impossible to miss the difference in the way the police handled the white rioters with kid gloves in stark contrast to their behaviour towards BLM protesters. It was shameful, as were the actions of the DC police in actively letting in the rioters, standing by as they attacked the Capitol and even posing for pictures with them. It beggared belief. My favourite online comment of the day was "I knew white privilege was a thing, but I didn't know I could break into the Capitol and sit in the Speaker's chair." Quite.
The reaction of the protesters outside the Capitol was also instructive. Despite the astonishing gentleness of the police response, the protesters were incredibly indignant that the police blocked them at all. No doubt for most of them they'd spent an entire lifetime without ever having to worry about what the police might do to them. The contrast with the BLM protesters couldn't be more clear.
What's more, the Trump fans thought they had received far rougher treatment by the police than the BLM protesters had. This is patently far from true, but it's not really the Trump people's fault that they think this way. Social media steers people into ever more separate silos and they had probably never been offered the footage of the BLM protests that would have proved them wrong.
After all that, you'd think the shock to democracy would bring the Trump-enabling Republicans to their senses, wouldn't you? Wrong. Sure, a few decided not to take the appalling step of contesting valid votes, but for most of them? Meh. Business as usual.
So what needs doing is obvious. Start impeachment proceedings for Trump immediately. Arrest the people carrying out the sedition in the Capitol. Do something substantive about the horrendous racism of the police. Regulate social media to stop it damaging the country through division for the sake of profit. And as soon as Biden is sworn in, close the legal loopholes that have allowed an unscrupulous President and Republican Senate to damage democracy so deeply. The most shocking thing of all? While I'd like to think all of those obvious things will happen, my confidence that they actually will is close to nil.