Following an hour long speech by then-President Donald Trump, in which he encouraged his supporters to march on Congress and challenge the certification of the presidential election results, protesters travelled to the Capitol building and began a violent attack on the building and those inside. The resulting riot interrupted congressional proceedings and threatened the safety of those in the building. After many hours of unrelenting violence, the protestors eventually turned back at the instruction of Trump himself. It is undeniable that the events of January 6th resulted in an enormous amount of pain and damage and in a handful of cases, death.
General opinion regards the attack on Congress as nothing short of a challenge to democracy and a blatant disrespect for the seat of American lawmaking. This is not a partisan issue, with members on both sides of the aisle condemning the actions of Trump and the protestors. There continue to be legal proceedings to this day as to whether Trump incited the insurrection, yet there remain many people who argue that the implications of these events have been greatly dramatised by the Democratic party in an attempt to villanise the GOP.
It is undeniable that the events of January 6th resulted in an enormous amount of pain and damage and in a handful of cases, death.
Supporters of President Trump have argued that the 2020 election results were inaccurate due to a number of factors such as mail fraud and improper counting of votes. His extremist supporters believe there was a liberal conspiracy in place to remove him from office. These examples served as justification for those who marched on the Capitol, as they claimed to do so in the name of defending democracy, following a ‘stolen’ election. Many have applied the saying ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ to the response from left-leaning media and Democratic politicians, who have attempted to portray Trump as the dictator they so want him to be. The widespread message from the left is that America is living with a perpetual threat from the right and that the country is far better off without Trump and his army of fascist, extremist supporters.
However, irregardless of such criticism from the Conservative leaning population, there can be no doubt that the tragic events of January 6th represented an aberration from normal democratic proceedings which can ultimately be viewed as at the very least concerning, and at worst, as a brief collapse of American democracy and the rule of law.
