The rampant irrationality that sparked Jan. 6 is the republic's greatest threat
On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of United States citizens from across the country stormed the Capitol building in Washington D.C. while Congress was in session certifying the outcome of the presidential election. They were incited by lies about the vote started by President Trump and broadcast by his partisans across the media. Several people died and several were wounded, including members of the Capitol police, who took the brunt of the violence. Who can say whether, were it not for the bravery of the officers, senators and representatives would have been among the casualties?
American democracy is in grave danger and the events of Jan. 6 were an acute symptom. Cynical and self-serving politicians and their pundit enablers are hard at work strategizing how to thwart the electoral will of the people. The shenanigans around the 2020 election and its violent aftermath are merely a prelude to the looming debacle of 2022 midterm elections that will fail to yield truly representative legislative bodies at both state and national levels and, more ominously, a bitterly contested 2024 presidential election whose outcome may not be accepted by one of the major parties.
There is no mystery as to who is responsible for this mess. Republican elected officials and party bureaucrats have taken a two-pronged approach. On one hand, they continue to spread falsehoods and disinformation about systemic fraud in the electoral process, seeking to rile up "the base" and undermine its confidence in any Democratic victory. On the other hand, they seek a more permanent, structural change in the electoral landscape through gerrymandering and either replacing or stripping power from state and local authorities who are deemed insufficiently loyal to the Trump cause.
Before assigning full blame to these Republican officials for attacking what had been the world's most admired and trusted democratic process, however, we should recognize that the trouble goes much deeper. A more fundamental and insidious disease is at work, a kind of virus that is attacking American minds as the COVID pandemic ravages our bodies. Those politicians and their allies who spread "The Big Lie" and work to undermine our democracy could never have come so far without the unfounded trust of the people who listen to them. According to one survey, 60 percent of Republicans believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-rampant-irrationality-that-sparked-jan-6-is-the-republic-s-greatest-threat/ar-AASvjjg
