It took four hours for law enforcement to clear the Capitol of Donald Trump’s deluded insurgents but it may take years to push him out of American politics.
He finally made what sounded like a concession speech and promised that his “focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power.” But for his supporters, ominously added, “our incredible journey is only just beginning.”
Removing Trump quickly with impeachment or Article 25 is deserved and may cool many in Washington and around the US who are outraged at the desecration of their temples of power.
But it would be the least wise thing to do because it could turn him into a larger than life icon venerated by millions on the right who see him as their champion relentlessly persecuted by elites in Washington’s political swamps.
Demonstrating Trump’s many failures and betrayals to them through impeachment’s guillotine may not deter them. There are too many on America’s hard right now to be argued back to reason by citing the Constitution, laws and norms.
Those who invaded the Capitol and blocked US democracy are not debaters looking to be persuaded. They are people who think they deserve more from their country and are willing to disrupt norms and break laws for it. Their perceptions are driven by emotion and grievance, not thinking things through.
To assert that Trump is driving their frenzy with repeated falsehoods is a conceit that reduces them to less intelligent people than their critics. It belittles their experiences of harm felt over years.
Hauling Trump in Congressional tumbrils to his political decapitation or even piling criminal charges on him after January 20 and throwing him in jail for years will not efface the hurts they have nursed over decades.
Critics may think those hurts are misperceptions and repeatedly give proof of this. But there are few listeners because America is loved differently by each side. Those differences must be acknowledged if Americans and their international friends are ever to end the mess.
“This has never happened and should never happen in our country” is an outdated argument. At least that much was clear to the entire world when the citadel of US democracy was stormed by American citizens who feel left behind by their own law makers.
Blaming everything on Trump is deflection. Getting rid of the leader has never worked anywhere as a path to disarming insurgents. Trump never was a great man or a great leader. Like any tinpot with power, his head grew too big for his own good. And those who put him there clung on to avoid acknowledging their own failure.
Now, Joe Biden’s Democrats can pulverize Trump if they wish but that will not bring peace to America unless the underlying perceptions of injustice, whether reasoned or not, are addressed convincingly. This is the lesson from every insurgency anywhere in the world.
The peril-filled rifts in US politics are not between only the hard right and left. They are between white and black, rich and poor, educated and less educated, urban and rural, women and men – each at multiple levels.
Continuing to brand Trump and his acolytes as the virus causing disease in US democracy will not bridge those numerous and complex rifts weakening Americans.
The fault lines are within the American people. They are the ones who are fighting, ensconced in dialogues of the deaf. For them to claim that their divisions are caused by politicians gives too much credit to politicians and may be disingenuous.
The momentous and long-haul task of healing rifts among people cannot be left only to Joe Biden and his Obama-era team, just as wars should never be left only to generals.
Democracy roundly defeated Trump on Thursday. Now Americans must invigorate that democracy by taking care of one another with minds and hearts open enough to strive for a better future for their children.
Life is breathed into democracy by people’s behavior, not by ideology. People caring for others regardless of differences can make America great for the first time. Otherwise the Trump nightmare may outlive Trump.