There Is No ā€œBoth Sidesā€ to Donald Trumpā€™s Threat to Democracy
www.vanityfair.com
Just because Republicans choose unreality doesnā€™t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.

Just because Republicans choose unreality doesnā€™t mean the media should ignore the facts of January 6.

On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, ā€œwill be wild,ā€ and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power.

It never occurred to me that these facts could somehow be perverted by partisanship. But three years later, we are seeing just that, as Republicans cling to the lie that the 2020 election was ā€œstolenā€ by Joe Biden and are poised to make Trump their 2024 nominee. And perhaps even more dangerous than the GOP ditching reality is the news mediaā€™s inability to cover Trumpism as the threat to democracy that it very much is.

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But the problem is, when all you have is conventional political framing, everything looks like politics as usual. One candidate makes a claim; the other disputes it. Two sides are divided, etc. This framing only works if both parties operate within the frameworks of a shared reality. But Trumpism doesnā€™t allow for the reality the rest of us inhabit. Trumpā€™s supporters believe their leaderā€™s reality and not, say, the reality the rest of us see with our eyes. As Trump once told a crowd: ā€œDonā€™t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What youā€™re seeing and what youā€™re reading is not whatā€™s happening.ā€

Journalists may be well-intentioned in trying to be ā€œobjective,ā€ or theyā€™re simply afraid of being labeled partisan. Either way, coverage of January 6 that gives equal weight to both sidesā€”one based in reality, one notā€”is helping pave the road for authoritarianism.

  • anarchyreloaded@lemmy.world
    43Ā·
    1 year ago

    The downfall of American democracy, like all democracies is lack of protection for its principles. If democracy becomes so radical about the principle of freedom of expression that there is no utterance that isnā€™'t worthy debating, no matter how debased it is while at the same time anything and everything is up for debate and nothing enshrined in principle democracy becomes its own worst enemy. Freedom of expression becomes the tool with which it destroys itself.

    The crux however lies in the fact that if institutions exist that protect democracy from itself, like the Austrian ā€œVerfassungsschutzā€ , that watch the radical ends of the political spectrum and hamper their political efforts, sometimes trying and convicting individuals as members of a criminal organisation they could easily be accused as stifling democracy.

    Ultimately the democratic principle rests upon its subjects willingness to practise it and to participate in it. If enough people are unhappy or uneducated enough to believe in the statements of demagogues and radicals its downfall cannot be stopped by institutionalized violence, political will, or anything else. Democracy cannot defend itself against its own worst enemy: People that for some reason or other have given up on that idea. Democracy therefore will always come with its own 5th column.

    What makes a working democracy is that everyone is actively participating in the dicourse and does what they can to stop the 5th column from rising to the top. A working democracy depends on a working educational system that produces strong critical minds. It relies on making sure everyone gets their share and that each and every subject has a stake in a system. Then the 5th Column is small enough to not really damage democracy and there is no instituion necessary to protect it.

    These days however the world is far beyond that tipping point. There are enough people unhappy enough with democracy that collective supression no longer works. And its troublesome to watch. I am terrified that someone like Donald Trump could even get to the point where he is the presidential candidate for a major party, let alone serve a term as president of the United States.

    Usually these sentiments are met with endless barrages of whataboutismā€¦ Literally no one, no matter what they have done with their emails or how many lobal conflicts they started in their term could be a worse president then someone whose aim is to just aimlessly wield power like a European monarch whose mind is impaired by the hereditary conditions that come with generations of incest.