The taking of the Capitol: a year later, the division takes hold in the United States

A year ago, the supposedly strongest democracy on the planet, the self-described leading country of the free world, saw how the heart of its institutionality was violated. Not by jihadists, not by Russians, Chinese or North Koreans, but by the same americans. The Capitol was invaded by a mob of extremists spurred on by the then president Donald Trump, who wanted Congress not to ratify the victory of Joe Biden in the November 2020 elections.

What happened in Washington, DC, undoubtedly stabbed America’s democracy, as well as a larger gap between Democrats and Republicans.

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At the end of January 2021, Biden assumed the presidency saying that he would heal that immense wound, but he had to attend to more urgent problems, such as the pandemic and the economic crisis, promoting his millionaire reactivation projects.

So on the first anniversary of the Capitol capture, Biden decided to speak out about what happened. January 6, 2021, when some 800 armed people stormed the building in order to attack, and even kill, elected legislators, especially Democrats. The violence of that day left five dead and 140 officers injured.

ALSO READ: The dramatic assault on the US Capitol: reflections and figures one year after the events

In a speech from the congressional rotunda, which was one of the areas invaded by extremists, he blamed the former president directly Trump for what happened: “We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. This is the truth: a former president of the United States has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 elections. He has done so because he values ​​power above principle “, He said Biden.

Joe Biden gave his speech commemorating the attack on the Capitol in the Statues Room, or rotunda. Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA / Bloomberg (JIM LO SCALZO /)

Without naming Trump, Biden I point out that “For the first time in our history, a president not only lost the elections, but also tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”

The former president, of course, was not silent, and responded through a statement: “Democrats want to take over this day to stoke fears and divide America.”

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“Before January 6, it was thought that democracy in the United States was set in stone. But now it is understood that there is a very large group of people who are willing, if it suits them, to subvert democracy, and it would be a very serious mistake not to pay attention to this. That is the great lesson of this, that North American democracy, which is more than 200 years old, is not something that can be taken for granted ”, the international analyst Roberto Heimovits comments to this newspaper.

One fact, two speeches

What happened on January 6 continues to divide Americans. The sample became palpable even in the commemoration in Congress, as none of the Republican leaders attended the ceremonies that were held in Washington.

In fact, Mitch McConnell, one of the most powerful members of the Republican Party and who is not related to Trump, pointed out that Democrats are “Exploiting this anniversary to advance their partisan political goals”.

ALSO READ: How the Capitol Assault Investigations Tighten the Ring on Trump

“There are many Republican legislators who had initially condemned the attack, perhaps because they themselves had been in danger of suffering harm because they were there, but they have backed down and no longer want to say anything that can be understood as a condemnation of Trump, because that could hurt his chances in the 2022 midterm elections ″Heimovits continues.

Thus, the polarization, which became evident in the 2020 campaign, remains unaffected. According to a survey published by the Axios site, only 55% of Americans believe that Biden legitimately won the election.

Donald Trump canceled at the last minute a press conference from his private residence in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), where he planned to speak about what happened on January 6, 2021. However, in a statement he continues to insist that he won the 2020 elections. AFP (SAUL LOEB /)

Figures from other polls point to similar trends. As the AP agency notes, a Quinnipiac University survey revealed that 93% of Democrats believe that it was an attack on the government and that only 29% of Republicans think the same.

A CBS-YouGov poll indicates that 85% of Democrats consider the Capitol capture an “insurrection,” compared to 21% of Republicans. A poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Investigations indicated that only four in 10 Republicans recall the events as a violent episode, compared with nine in 10 Democrats.

“70% of Republican voters he continues to believe that the elections were stolen from them by the Democrats, so there are probably not many people from that group who condemn the attack on the Capitol “, Roberto Heimovits points out.

ALSO READ: For Trump supporters, the assault on the US Capitol was “an incredible day”

Can it happen again?

The same Axios survey also points to an important fact: around 57% of Americans estimate that what happened on January 6, 2021 could be repeated in the coming years.

For its part, an NPR / Ipsos poll indicates that 64% of the population believes that North American democracy “is in crisis and at risk of failure.”

The 2020 elections have left a profound mark on American society. Polarization has not abated, but continues to take hold. / AFP / ALEX EDELMAN (ALEX EDELMAN /)

“If there are no strong measures and convictions against the people who attacked the Capitol, or against those who instigated it, I believe that even a new attack can happen. If those who believe in democracy in the United States are not going to actively defend it, then what happened on January 6 could be repeated and there could be new attempts by Trump, or by his followers, to ignore the majority results of the next elections “, explains Heimovits.

And concludes: “I do not know if what happened on Capitol Hill was a before and after in American history, but it has been a very red and powerful warning light for the country’s democracy, because it was about a president who did not know the result of the elections. And if there is something in which Biden must be extremely active, it is to avoid all these vote suppression maneuvers that Republicans are trying to do to prevent African Americans and Hispanics from voting, since they are voters who vote mostly for Democrats. “

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