A sad day for the United States: The most important democracy in the world has shown how low its threshold is

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Like many Israelis, and many more around the world, I watched last night in amazement the images that came from Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The Confederate flag, in whose name they fought for the preservation of slavery in the American Civil War was seen in the Senate, protesters came to the podium and even entered the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Capitol Hill riot: Crowds erupted in Congress // Photo: Reuters

The background to all the riots is a sitting that began yesterday and ended this morning, at which Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election was confirmed. The protesters, Trump supporters, believe the results were falsified and therefore were unwilling to accept them. Trump, for his part, has not stayed out of action. She stirred the spirits in a speech in which he said “We will never give up, we will never admit defeat.” These are not just empty words, they have caused many protesters to break into the US Parliament with violence and wreak havoc on the spot.

But the building and offices are not the only things destroyed yesterday in Washington, D.C. American democracy and the Republican Party were destroyed even more. The most important democracy in the world has proved that its threshold is low. That despite the talk of promoting democracy and spreading it to the whole world – at home they find it difficult to implement.

Security forces yesterday at Capitol Hill // Photo: Reuters

The protesters, who clearly do not represent the majority of Republican voters, also destroyed the party’s legitimacy. In my estimation, their behavior turned into such a party hitting, almost a knockout, that it would be difficult for it to recover from it. Already now the extremism in the ranks of the Republican Party has made it almost assigned in certain circles, but so far it has been due to ideological disagreements. That is, until now the disgust of some people from the Republican Party was mainly because of the way it played the game, and made moves that were considered extreme.

Trump supporters in the Capitol building // Photo: API

From now on it will change. The disgust will not be because of the moves the party is taking, but because some of its supporters, instead of making moves, are burning the game board. They no longer use democracy to promote moves that their opponents do not like, but reject democracy when the game is over in a way that they do not agree with.

Two hours after the riots broke out, Trump released a video in which he said he “loves the protesters but they should go home.” This video showed that Trump is not ready to take on a complete fire of the game board, but is definitely ready for a partial fire. It’s a mistake.

Trump protests in Capitol: “You have to go home, we do not want anyone to get hurt” // Photo: From Donald Trump’s Twitter account

If the party wants to preserve any legitimacy for the future, it and its leader should speak in a clear and understandable voice and say – “Yes. We like protesters standing outside the Capitol with signs. No. We do not like those who break in violently.”

Americans have the right to demonstrate if they believe the election results have been falsified, but they have no right to try to reverse the results by force of arm. But Trump did not, and generations of Republican leaders will pay for it.

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