FREE speech and the freedom to protest provide the necessary oxygen for democracy. But American democracy suffered a gut punch on Capitol Hill this week. Public trust in America’s democratic institutions has been destroyed.
The United States of America hit the bottom and its charisma, influence, and leadership have been expulsed; no longer does freedom emanate from it. This event and the resultant divisions will forever opacify the beacon of democracy and detract from the beautiful Founding Father rhetoric of “City upon a Hill.”
There is no excuse for the riots that happened at the Capitol. All those who stormed the Capitol building should be lawfully punished as should have happened to the Antifa rioters in 2020. Violence is not the answer.
The leftist mobs in 2020 burned police stations and destroyed shopping districts in a rampage against supposed systematic racism, in the process killing innocent bystanders and law enforcement officers, destroying American symbols, burning flags, and toppling statues. The liberals believe that that the system is rigged against African-Americans, women, specific minorities, and everyone identifying as other than the binary genders.
The conservatives argue that tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley have gained control over communications and have rigged the system against middle income Americans who hold to traditional values. Getting rid of Trump will not fix America’s broken Democracy.
Because, the rioting , burning, killing, and other criminal activity are taking place in longtime Democratic controlled cities in mostly democratic states. The left is planning to destroy the Constitution by curtailing free speech, canceling the Second Amendment, packing the courts and much more.
The Democratic party, assisted by a hopelessly compromised national media deliberately put the country through four years of a false Russian collusion narrative followed by a phony impeachment. After refusing to recognize the results of the 2016 election and trying to outs the duly elected president they now play blame everything on President Trump
Normalizing the riots has consequences. Democrats with their media control argue that the “Black Lives Matter” riots were not violent.
Following Hitler’s script outlined in Mein Kampf, gear the message to the masses, keep it simple, and repeat it often. Many times the Democrats and left media have repeated that a riot is the language of the unheard.
The left media, including the Democratic Party, failed to stop the street savagery or to call Antifa’s involvement an insurrection, but it took only minutes for media to label the Capitol siege insurrection and coup and the perpetrators domestic terrorists and White Supremacists, as well as other terms inciting conflict and social media hits. The rule of law must be applied equally.
During the Black Lives Matter altercations, the majority of the Democrats, including President-Elect Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, did not condemn those perpetrating destruction in cities across America.
Rioting for sure is wrong. When Black Lives Matter rioters set a church on fire and besieged the White House, Democrats and the media spent months shouting that President Trump and Attorney General Barr were fascists for trying to deploy troops to stop the assault, but the left does not like it when others fight by their rules.
For four years leftists have had no respect for democratically elected President Donald Trump; for four years they have said that Trump is not their President, and now many of the conservatives feel the same way about Biden.
The double standard should be tucked back in Pandora’s Box because it does not help America. Instead, America needs to spend time and energy focusing on the health pandemic, the economic crisis, and the rise of China’s influence and domain among other pressing issues.
When protesters occupied a section of downtown Seattle and renamed it “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” Joe Biden and a majority of the Democrats simply kneeled down. Trump supporters have no rights, but Biden supporters have license to break any law they choose.
Now that the Democrats expect to take power, they suddenly have decided that rioting is malevolent. Defunding police is bad. In truth, laws only work when they apply to everyone.
Why is a broken glass on Capitol Hill so much more precious than the burning of police precinct, killing of law enforcement agents, cutting short the lives of innocent people, or stealing property?
Democrats and left media called the earlier riots “peaceful protesters” and cheered them. When violence is acceptable for some but unacceptable for others, then an ongoing brutal struggle will continue until the leaders or the public come to their senses.
The violent, lawless actions at the US Capitol building against Congress and Capitol police are wrong and dangerous for the republic.
Lawlessness is not the way to assert political views, and such actions make it hard for the majority of law abiding Americans to fight the good fight. The majority of Trump supporters are from faith-based communities that consider disobeying authorities and assaulting innocent participants or law enforcement representatives as a sin whether they are done by Antifa or by angry conservatives. Where envy and selfish ambition exist, they will be accompanied by disorder and evil practices. Mayhem results from power grabs.
A peaceful transition of power has marked the American system since George Washington transferred power to his successor John Adams, and forty-four Presidents since then have followed this 230-year tradition. It is part of honoring and submitting to God’s ordained leaders whether they were our choice or not.
The majority of Conservatives did not agree with Obama‘s policies, including myself, but accepted the people’s choice and considered Obama as their President. America should not despise everything. Instead, the leaders, think tanks, communities, and individuals should really examine the causes of the Capital riots.
What do the citizens do when our elected leaders are corrupt? Did our institutions fail to bring them to justice, in such cases as Clinton’s deletion of thousands of emails on her private server, Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma Holding Ltd., and Vice President Joe Biden’s improperly using his White House position to advance his son’s business interests in Ukraine as well in China?
The world was watching when they saw the country that they used to admire descend into the abyss. Where the world once looked to the US as a beacon of democracy and an example of the path to follow in safeguarding the liberties and principles of living in a free society—now that beacon has dimmed.
To see the foundations of democracy attacked from within was painful to watch.When Europe lost World War II to the German Nazis, America saved England and even Europe with its resources and will. If America falls, who will save America? There is no question that the United States has totally lost its legitimacy and qualification to interfere in other countries’ domestic affairs, even with the given excuse of spreading democracy.
A handful of tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley, those that constitute the world’s five wealthiest companies, hold the power and make decisions for the majority of Americans and limit what the people can say and what they cannot say, for example blocking President Trump’s twitter account for twelve hours.
Many constituents see many countries getting a free ride at America’s expense, such as unfair free trade deals, support of international agencies, and Americans losing jobs through outsourcing. Donald Trump gave them hope by going after the powerful tech firms, global elites, and transnational organizations.
To salvage his time in office, Trump should focus on what he has done for America in the four years at the helm. The left is the beneficiary of this rioting. They have made the President appear to be what they claimed, and in doing so, drawing off the bulk of his support.
The protests on Capitol Hill were the result of serial frustrations at watching the left get by with murder for political gain. Double standards are not sustainable. They may be ideologically sustainable, but that has little to do with the real world. The proverbial chickens will come to roost in Biden’s coop.
When Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20, his alacrity will have little effect on convincing the world that America remains a model of democratic values. Impeaching Trump and removing him from the office will not bring America together but will only bolster the enemies of America. Trump supporters are not going to go way.
If high tech oligarchs, such as those who manage Twitter and Google, can stop the most powerful person on the earth, the President of the United States, I am sure that President Trump and the 49 million who support him will have the door open for them to have their own social media platform and presence.
From the days of calling his supporters “Deplorables” to today when ABC’s Rick Klein and MaryAlice Parks spoke of “cleansing the movement,” a term associated with genocide, journalists have fanned the fire with rhetoric equal to the language they say Trump used to incite the siege, and for this reason, Trump supporters will remain a formidable force in spite of his leaving the White House.
Nevertheless, Congress, unbowed, reconvened hours after the siege in order to certify Biden’s victory, a comeback fraught with hope that the country still survives and its democratic principles still stand. When Vice President Pence certified the electoral victory of the Biden and Kamala Harris cabal and his own defeat, the conciliation demonstrated what America is really all about.
Joe Biden now needs to focus on the country at large, to heal the nations’ wounds, to demonstrate the irregularities in the election system, to permit the investigation of his son Hinter Biden, to avoid normalizing the riots, thereby demonstrating not a sanctioning but a rejecting of them.
America needs to return as the leader of the free world because there so many global issues at stake that require strong leadership and reasoned thought. It is possible for America to restore its charisma and its adherence to its democratic principles. But, the only way to do that is to defend Americans’ basic principles of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and, thereby regain its role as an open, honest, and moral model for the world.
Dr. Aland Mizell is President of the MCI and a regular contributor to Mindanao Times. You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
