Political irony, and no steal

Today is the anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection. As shocking as January 6th was to many Americans, what has happened since should be—but seemingly isn't—more so. The insurrection wasn't the cause of America's problem but the unexpected result of the confluence of a series of currents that produced what most had considered unthinkable; the possibility of a failure of democracy in a country that holds itself up to the world as its very model. Just as Great Britain took over half a century to come to terms with its decline, so it will be many years before Americans come to understand what they have allowed to happen. 

The prospects for democracy in America look bleak. The majority of Republicans, still in the thrall of Trump and the anger he and his enablers at Fox have stoked in his base, ultimately decided that their pact with the orange devil was their only route to power. So while many Republicans may have admitted privately that Trump had lost them both houses and the presidency, publicly buying into the Big Lie was their best strategy for regaining them. Their lack of steel in claiming a steal had take place marks a turning point in the decline in public trust in the institutions of democracy and order. It signals that we can pick and choose when to accept institutionally produced mandates and requirements.

That willingness to in essence 'take the laws into ones own hands' exposes a particular irony on the political right; ostensibly the party of law and order, the Republicans seem far more willing that Democrats to ignore the institutions of law and order when it suites them. There is an inherent tension between a party of law and order that also promotes rugged individualism. But that tension provides the basis for enormous fluidity; Republican run states can protest "states' rights" in opposing federal requirements yet use the power of the state to quash counties and districts in their state making similar claims of local autonomy.  Perhaps this was always the way; law and order suited Republican when it helped imposing their political agenda but are willing to ignore the law and promote disorder when those are the means to their ends.  

From individuals ignoring mask mandates, with local sheriffs announcing in public that state mandates won't be enforced, to the refusal to accept the outcomes of an election, America's democratic foundations are rotting away. Where this ends is far from clear. Many, including me, had hoped that after two impeachments and the loss of his reelection bid, Trump, and more importantly what he stood for, would subside back into the murky conspiratorial backwaters from which he emerged. But that didn't happen and the prospects that the country will be treated to a second bout of the MAGA infection look increasingly likely. So pervasive and effective has Trump's Big Lie been in undermining faith in American democracy, the chances of it  making a full recovery, were it to suffer a second Trump term, look perilously thin. Like covid, Trumpism looks set to become endemic.