How should America move forward and properly react to Wednesday\u2019s occupation of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question being pondered by politicians, experts and observers around the world today.<\/p>\n
Brock University Associate Professor of Political Science Paul Hamilton says the events in Washington were either \u201cthe last gasp of the Trump era or the beginning of the descent of American politics into political violence and anti-democratic populism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much will hinge on the response of Republican politicians and whether they will remain loyal to Trump or repudiate him and his politics,\u201d says Hamilton. \u201cThere is talk of the 25th Amendment and of impeachment. A bipartisan coalition to unseat Trump would demonstrate the gravity of this moment and represent a unified statement of support for the rule of law and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tami Friedman, Associate Professor of History at Brock, says what happened at the Capitol was as frightening as it appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been political protests and even violence in the chambers before, but very rarely,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat we saw yesterday was extraordinary: a mob fighting its way past law enforcement and invading the building, with the goal of overthrowing a presidential election by blocking certification of legitimate election results. No one should minimize the gravity of what has occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friedman says Trump\u2019s attempts to change the election results harken back to the end of the Civil War, when there was an intense struggle over granting citizenship rights to former enslaved African Americans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat followed was Reconstruction (1865-1877), an experiment in interracial democracy in the southern states that had broken away from and gone to war against the United States,\u201d she says. \u201cThat experiment was overthrown by white supremacist southerners who used every conceivable means \u2014 ballot fraud, intimidation, murder \u2014 to disenfranchise and terrorize former slaves and their allies and restore themselves to power. It is no accident that the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol yesterday were waving Confederate flags that celebrate slavery and white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Associate Professor of Political Science Stefan Dolgert says the \u201cinsurrection of Jan. 6 was the predictable result of Trump’s escalating violation of the norms of representative democracy, aided by two decades of fictitious grievance-peddling in the right-wing media ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., I signed an open letter from American political scientists calling for the immediate removal of President Trump via the 25th Amendment, but I do not expect this will eliminate the danger to the U.S. and the world, even if successful,\u201d says Dolgert, who is from California.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coup failed, but this is the beginning rather than the end of the trouble. The coming years will see more overt violence, and probably at least one successful effort to overturn a legitimate democratic election.\u00a0Canadian politicians need to plan for this eventuality and can no longer blithely assume that the U.S. is a stable democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ibrahim Berrada, a Brock instructor in Canadian Studies and former Parliament Hill staffer calls Thursday\u2019s actions an \u201cattack on democracy\u201d spurred on by Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrumpian populism encourages right-wing radicalism incited by division and polarization and fueled by hate and anger,\u201d says Berrada. \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s consistent barrage of conspiracy theories and radicalized unsubstantiated claims inspires rebellion among his supporters without rationalizing their potential actions or considering any impending consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says it\u2019s important to understand that Canada is not immune to the sentiments instigated by Trump, and that the President\u2019s actions will have long-lasting consequences on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada has seen a steady rise of radicalized right-wing sentiments; albeit, these political sentiments have not always been prosperous in garnering widespread support,\u201d Berrada says. \u201cRight-wing populist moments are very much a part of Canada\u2019s political landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cMisinformation, promotion of conspiracies and campaigns of mistruths are dangerous. We must remain wary of radical right-wing movements in the coming days, weeks and months,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How should America move forward and properly react to Wednesday\u2019s occupation of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":69895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,37,1,4,38],"tags":[241,75,8820,4247,42,3427,9635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69897,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69892\/revisions\/69897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}