Holy Hell. A Stars and Bars flag being flown in the central lobby of the Capitol building of the United States of America. In 2021 not 1861. Hundreds of armed, face painted American “patriots” (Ivanka Trump’s words) storm the Senate and Congress and interrupt the procedure to ratify the Electoral Colleges votes which make Joe Biden the winner of the Presidential election. Guns are fired, four are killed. The oil paintings of the Founding Fathers look down on a scene of insurrection where every democratic principle they fought so hard to enshrine in the rule of law is now wobbling precariously as the mob – Rome’s Plebs – break into the building, smash windows, besiege the debating chambers and pose, like silly little school kids on the dais, wearing war paint, flags and “Fuck Biden” T-shirts. It is a scene no one ever expected to see other than in Hollywood movies about the end of the world. Only this is the end of the American World.
America has had it. As a world power, as a democracy, as a civilised society. Joe Biden talks about “being back at the head of the (international) table”. Uh-ugh. No. Trump relinquished that seat and you cannot just slip back into it as if nothing has happened. Lots has happened. The USA is no longer a stable democracy for one. It is an untrustworthy ally. It has walked out and reneged on most of its bigger global commitments, courted enemies and offended friends. Half its population voted for the horror of a human being that is Trump. Half of the populace willed the wreaking of havoc he brought, voted for the values he espoused. And now America will pay the price.
It is a horror story for America. The nation’s demise has played out on live TV like some tin pot, third world country where the symbolic citadel of power has been exposed – just as vulnerable to attack and undermining as any other regime. The edifice of grandeur has collapsed with the Barbarians at the gates baying for blood. What a sight. What a scandal. What a tragedy. All so eloquently symbolised by that Stars and Bars banner triumphant in the seat of the Union. That flag of a discredited political system, of a defeated army, of a slave-owning economy, of every disenfranchised, ignorant, gun-toting, white supremacist dickhead, of hatred, bigotry, violence – waving proudly as the banner of Trumpian Glory. It is as viscerally shocking as if a swastika swung over the Palace of Westminster. It is a reminder that we are all a hair’s breadth away from despotism and the rule of the mob. America came close to dying today. Its fragility exposed, its democratic values hanging by a thread.
If the price of liberty really is eternal vigilance, then the people of the USA need to get back on guard. They have been ambushed and bamboozled and wrong footed by the malignity of a man with whom people who should know better should not have joined in common cause. The Republican Party will be out of power for generations after this betrayal. They have shown themselves to be unfit for office – their complicity with Trump has turned them into the party of the Confederacy. You can hear the backpeddaling now as they try to distance themselves, but people are not so easily fooled: just as Britain’s Prime Minister and Facebook and Twitter so fearlessly attack Trump by name with only two weeks left in office for his incitement to riot when they no longer have to cower prostrate in front of him, the Republicans are denouncing their saviour in his hour of need. Fair friends indeed. It is a blessing that on the day these KKK thugs tried to take power by President-backed coup, the Democrat party took back control of the Senate, clearing the way to deal with this departure from the High Road of Democracy that America has taken. The march back must begin straight away. There can be no forgiveness for Trump’s attempted over turn of the election result. He has encouraged his supporters to overthrow an election he lost; he has broken his oath to uphold the Constitution. He must be impeached. He must be evicted from office. As Confederate in Chief, he must be tried for treason.