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Democracy, Division, and an Attempted Coup

On January 6, 2021, a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, incited by the recently defeated president. Inside, a majority of Republican representatives plotted to overturn legitimate election results. Of course, the attempted coup was partly theater. Few of its protagonists expected to take power at one blow. Some saw this as more an expression of their anger and perceived rights than an instrumental tactic. Others saw it as part of a longer struggle. The subversion of democracy has been underway for years. It did not originate with Donald Trump, nor is it limited to his attempt to cling to power. It is a project of White Christian Nationalists, neo-Nazis, and a broader range of racists and Republicans seeking power even at the expense of legitimacy. It has moved from the margins to center stage because of broader and deeper degenerations of democracy. For fifty years, inequality has grown more extreme, social solidarity has eroded, and institutions have been undermined. Citizens have laid claims to their essential freedom all the more vehemently as they have felt disempowered and vulnerable. Local communities have been disrupted; America’s once-rich fabric of voluntary associations has deteriorated. Shared political identity has faded and fractured along with the idea of sharing in a public good more than the sum of private benefits. The polarization of politics has been intensified by social divisions, dysfunctional parties, and media easily manipulated and split into silos. But only when Trump tried to cling to power after losing an election was there an attempted coup.