No. 192 - America's Crisis: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times?

Dear James,

Yesterday, in a period of five hours, we saw the best and the worst of America. To quote Charles Dickens on the French Revolution, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was he age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

The world watched in horror as, at about 14.00 EST yesterday, the mob moved up the steps of the Capitol in Washington towards a thin line of policemen. The line broke and the policemen fled back into the building allowing the black tide to flood the terraces, raise their flags and chant, ‘USA, USA!’ ‘Stop the Steal’ signs were everywhere. And somewhere someone put up the Confederate flag. The free world shuddered. 

America is riven by two different, mutually incomprehensible mindsets or world views. One half believe in ‘The Shining City on a Hill’ of its founding fathers. The other half believe in every kind of conspiracy theory, disinformation, untruths and lies. Yesterday, the latter briefly took over the Capitol and inflicted its worst upon that noble symbol of American democracy. Four people died. Offices were trashed, Congress men and women evacuated and the Confederate flag flew once again. Yet the counter-reaction was immediate. The vitality of American democracy pushed back and Congress, sitting through the night, certified the elections of Biden and Harris as the next President and Vice-President of the USA. America showed itself at its best even as it was enduring its worst. The USA had survived its ‘Reichstag Fire’ moment. And it had done it easily!

The day, January 6th, had been chosen carefully by Trump and the rioters. While the President egged on the demonstrators outside, inside the Capitol, Congress was debating the usually pro forma certification of the recent election. A few renegade Republican Senators and Representatives, were challenging the certification of the most technically perfect election ever.

On the same day further south, a much more significant event was happening in Georgia. The Democrats won two seats in the Senate bringing that body’s influence into Joe Biden’s camp. Biden now has both Houses at his disposal and so his agenda should not lead to Congressional gridlock, that old bugbear of US politics. Again this was American democracy in action.

Of course, as they watched their screens, dictators and autocrats everywhere were rubbing their hands with glee. China grabbed the opportunity to arrest 50 pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong. Even in our own free nations, zealots were imagining similar sieges in their own lands: imagine the House of Commons overrun by far right thugs! 

What has this got to do with us? We, like America, have always had our demons. In the USA it is race and gun control. In the UK it is class and massive inequality. In both, social mobility stalled decades ago. Demographic changes fuel the resentment. In the USA, the proportion of ‘whites’ in the nation has shrunk to 60%. In the UK, the older population have witnessed decades of immigration from the EU. Many of both populations have seen no rise in their take home pay for more than a decade yet they see the huge bonuses of the City and Wall Street and the vast incomes of Silicon Valley. What better breeding ground for resentment!

Such resentments have been exploited by the populists and their handmaid, the social media. 40% of America now believes that their vote was ‘stolen’. 52% of Brits believed that the EU was to blame for their plight. Allowing small groups to live in separate belief systems isolated from mainstream thinking was the dream of Joseph Goebbels. In twelve, brief years he made Germany in to a belief system cut off from the rest of the civilized world. 60 million dead was the result. Yesterday, that process was blocked by American democracy at its very best. 

There were two other notable events yesterday.  Twitter suspended Trump’s account and, in a day of rising prices, the shares of Facebook and Twitter sank temporarily. The market is expecting a severe government backlash against these conveyors of false worlds and private lies. About time too! 

James, yesterday’s events were far from depressing. They were the kind of challenge that created that great document, the American Constitution. And yesterday that document demonstrated its resilience. Yesterday was, in the end, the very best of times! 

 Kind regards, 

BH – Your Concerned Constituent