Insurrection

INSURRECTION INSURRECTION

A DEMOCRACY DECAYING

Written by Laine Bottemiller, Culture Editorial Assistant Graphic by Quinn Ruzicka, Staff Graphic Artist

“We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason: To save our democracy”1 is what former President Donald Trump told his audience at a rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021.

Less than an hour after this promise, rioters relocated from the rally to the Capitol, storming barricades, smashing doors and windows and hunting down government officials.2 America watched a day that marked a new era—the disfigurement of democracy.

The Undermining of Institutions

Trump rejected the result of the 2020 election by claiming it was a “stolen” election,3 prolonging the concession of the presidency and refusing to attend Biden’s inauguration. Following, Trump backed multiple lawsuits intended to undo the electoral majority that secured Biden’s victory over his own. One of these was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against swing states Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.4

¹ AP News, “Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US Capitol riot,” Jan. 14, 2021. ² “Capitol riots timeline: What happened on 6 Jan one year ago?” BBC, Jan. 6, 2022. ³ Ibid. ⁴ Nomaan Merchant, Alanna Durkin & Mark Sherman, “Supreme Court rejects Republican attack on Biden victory,” AP News, Dec. 11, 2020. Despite the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Texas case, these lawsuits undermine democracy in two ways. First, this lawsuit attempted to subvert the public’s will, overturning millions of votes and sabotaging the results of the election. Second, the claims inject fraud into the once unwavering electoral institution.

Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, explains “If we want to continue to provide safe, secure and accessible elections, constantly running down absurd conspiracy theories is not sustainable; for many election workers, this has become a full-time job.”5

Similarly, the insurrection, prompted by Trump’s claims to “stop the steal”6 of the election, interrupted Congress’s certification of the presidential election, again impeding the electorate’s decision. A threat to the validity of a vote is an infringement on democracy.

The Rise of Pernicious Polarization7

The insurrection also signals polariza-

⁵ Emma Brown, “Inside the nonstop pressure campaign by Trump allies to get election officials to revisit the 2020 vote,” The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2021. ⁶ AP News, “Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US Capitol riot,” Jan. 14, 2021. ⁷ Jennifer McCoy & Murat Somer, “Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 681(1), 234–71, Jan. 2019. tion, a threat to democracy that is decades in the making. According to Pew Research Center, today, the average Republican is more conservative than 94% of Democrats, and the average Democrat is more liberal than 92% of Republicans—in other words, people on polarizing sides have alarmingly more to disagree on than they do to agree on.8

Jennifer McCoy and Murat Somer, experts on political science and democratization, define pernicious polarization as when societies are divided into “us versus them” groups “based on a single dimension of difference that overshadows all others.”9

In their research, the two use pro and anti-Trump claims as an example of one of these divisions.10 In this regard, Trump’s denial of the election enforces the division between the “strong,” “smart”11 people who believe Trump won the election (us) and the “hopeless,” “weak”12 fraud deniers (them). McCoy and Somer warn the United States’ pernicious polarization could lead to aggressive clashing between the two groups, delegitimizing each other and the political system.13 Civil

⁸ “Political Polarization in the American Public,” Pew Research Center, June 12, 2014. ⁹ Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 AP News, “Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US Capitol riot,” Jan. 14, 2021. 12 Ibid. 13 Jennifer McCoy & Murat Somer, “Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How It Harms

war expert Barbara Walter warns that extreme political division can lead to a collapse toward all-out civil war.14

The Future of American Democracy

Today, the possibility of civil war—or future violence—may be more feasible than we’d expect. Following Trump’s claims of a “stolen” election, Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West told reporters, “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution.”15

On Jan. 6, President Biden noted that several of the insurgents paraded the Confederate flag, something which

Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 681(1), 234–71, Jan. 2019. 14 Zack Beauchamp, “A year after the January 6 insurrection, how does America’s crisis end?” Vox, Jan. 3, 2022. 15 Nomaan Merchant, Alanna Durkin & Mark Sherman, “Supreme Court rejects Republican attack on Biden victory,” AP News, Dec. 11, 2020. didn’t even occur during the Civil War.16 Additionally, in a survey conducted by Washington Post in December 2021, 34% of polled participants thought “violent action against the government” was justified, an 11% increase from October 2015.17 The insurrection proves that a leaders’ rhetoric has a large influence on mobilizing polarized groups—even to the point of violence.

Rhetoric plays an important role in any democratic society. In fact, freedom of speech and press to express opinions and affect the masses is often considered the lifeblood of democracy, in which all citizens are allowed to participate in and contribute to the narrative. Due to this value, governmental institutions are strictly prohibited from restricting speech based on its content.

16 Katie Rogers, “Biden’s Speech on the Jan. 6 Riot, Annotated,” The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2022. 17 “Dec. 17-19, 2021, Washington Post-University of Maryland poll,” The Washington Post, accessed Feb. 2022. Still, the Constitution notes some limitations to this freedom, including that one shall not “incite imminent lawless action” or disseminate other types of unlawful information.18 But what happens when the line between expressing one’s frustration and invoking baseless claims about the state of reality begins to blur in the eyes of society? What happens when our democracy may be threatened by lackluster practices surrounding the very thing that upholds it?

As Donald Trump closed his speech on Jan. 6, minutes before the Capitol insurrection, he inspired the crowd, stating “The best is yet to come.”19 How desperately I hope he spoke the truth. How fearful I am of the alternative. ■

18 “What Does Free Speech Mean?” U.S. Courts, accessed Feb. 2022. 19 AP News, “Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US Capitol riot,” Jan. 14, 2021.