The Capitol Riots: Reckoning with a Deeper Problem

On January 6, 2021, an unprecedented crisis embroiled in Washington D.C. Although it is difficult to estimate how many rioters were involved, rough estimates point to multiple thousands of Trump supporters rallying that Wednesday afternoon, with intentions of contesting what they believed to be a fraudulent election. 

The riot was not without its casualties: five people have died as a result of their injuries from the event. Four were among those who had stormed the Capitol, and one was Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick. Around 140 policemen sustained injuries. “One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake, to name some of the injuries,” said Gus Papathanasiou, head of the Capitol Police’s union.

The violent images taken from the storming of the Capitol shocked both Americans and people around the world, many of whom had been closely following the recent Presidential election. Despite the rapidly worsening political division ushered in by the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, nothing nearing a full-on coup or physical attack on democracy occurred until January 6.

Photographs taken at the scene of the Confederate flag flying freely in the highest legislative chamber of the United States were certainly horrifying. Rioters were seen proudly brandishing clothing adorned with Nazi symbols, like the Swastika and the acronym 6MWE (“6 million wasn’t enough,” referring to the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust).

What made it possible for the United States to come to this point in the first place? It’s a question that some asked when Trump was elected in 2016, and a question that others asked when the United States surpassed over 400 thousand coronavirus deaths, with no end in sight. In short, the United States government must grapple with the consequences of its denial of white supremacy as a real, serious threat that impacts everyone, including them. 

Most directly, the riot at the Capitol was instigated by Donald Trump himself, who posted on his Instagram beforehand, urging his supporters to attend a “Rally for America'' after he had already lost re-election. Indirectly, though, the riot was allowed to happen through the lack of substantive response to far-right conspiracy theorists like Lin Wood—who insinuates that the Capitol riots were actually carried out by Antifa protestors in disguise—and the growing popularity of racist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic movements in mainstream society. There are current senators fanning the fire even today—in particular, Marjorie Taylor Greene comes to mind.

With the acknowledgment that free speech is a right guaranteed in our Constitution to even those with hateful and destructive ideologies, it should be noted that white nationalism is not simply “another political opinion.” It is inherently violent and fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Therefore, it cannot be treated with the respect granted to an opinion. 

History has taught us that appeasement doesn’t work with fascists and their sympathizers. Nowadays, the word fascist is thrown around incorrectly but also dismissed as a taboo label that could never apply to someone living in a republic. It is no longer politically acceptable to call yourself a fascist like Mussolini did in World War II Italy. That doesn’t mean that fascists no longer exist, however, and modern-day fascists are well aware of that fact. 

As we enter a promised, so-called, “return to normalcy” under the Biden administration, we must not allow our hope for bipartisanship to overshadow our need for justice. The GOP needs to be held accountable for at the very least, not doing more, and at the very worst, instigating violence. We cannot have leaders that underestimate fascism. We cannot afford to give them power.

by ATHENA LI