Hell to the Liars
So it’s been another dramatic six months in the United States. First we had a historic turnout at the 2020 elections, with vote counts and recounts lasting weeks, accompanied by legal wranglings as Trump and his supporters tried everything they could to overturn the results. One particular highlight for me, and many others, was watching President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, literally sweating under the pressure of justifying the, largely baseless, claims of voter fraud. Ultimately, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, only one was successful, but still had no effect on the election outcomes.
Another outcome of the flurry of lawsuits is that Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s legal team challenging the election results, and co-star of Rudy Giuliani’s now notorious ‘hair meltdown’ press-conference, is being sued $1.3bn for her false accusations of voting machine rigging by Dominion Voting Systems, who claim her allegations have severely damaged the company’s international reputation and lost it valuable business as a consequence.
Sidney has made a name for herself by espousing crack-pot theories of election interference, including claiming, without evidence, that Barack Obama conspired with former Italian prime minster, Matteo Renzi, to hack US voting machines using a military satellite. And also, separately, that it was actually the Venezuelan government that conspired to hack into the voting machines in the United States during the presidential elections, to flip the vote for Joe Biden and vice-president elect Kamala Harris. Hmmm …
Fast forward to 2021, and we’ve just witnessed the now infamous protests on Capitol Hill where Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building and attempted to stop the Electoral College vote confirmation for the 2020 presidential elections, once it became clear that Vice President Mike Pence wouldn’t corrupt the vote count or undermine the debate. It was a shocking moment for the world to witness. One of the great symbols of freedom and democracy in the world violated by a mob of (mostly) angry, white men.
Whilst some of the so called ‘insurrection’ acts were humorous, like protestors taking selfies in the debating chambers, and one man finding comfort in occupying — leader of the house of representatives — Nancy Pelosi’s office, there were also tragedies. After Trump egged on his supporters to disrupt the vote, and Capitol Hill police were seemingly unable, or unwilling, to stop the protestors, one protestor was shot, and later died of her injuries.
One Capitol building policeman was bludgeoned by angry protestors, and later tragically died of his injuries. And another was seemingly so distraught with the failures of his colleagues that he took his own life. Incidentally, his father was a Capitol policeman, and he took the job after his father passed away. Clearly a very strong emotional attachment to the job and what it symbolised to his family …
And now we are looking at the final week of Trump’s term in office. Trump still hasn’t conceded defeat, only fuelling discontent and distrust in the election outcome, and has refused to attend president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, despite (finally) publicly agreeing to a peaceful transfer of power.
After the Capital protests, there is much concern about far-right groups causing trouble on the lead up to Joe Biden’s inauguration. Multiple pipe-bombs were discovered in Washington DC on the day of the famed occupation of the Capital building, including at the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters. It would suggest dangerous individuals with deep-seated distrust of both parties and the entire political apparatus in the United States.
And people’s worst fears are being imagined for inauguration day. Will there be violence? Probably. Will there be terrorist activity? Who knows. Clearly the FBI and Homeland security will have to pull out all the stops to keep people safe, with additional support from the National Guard. However it has opened up a new chapter in American history — one of far-right extremist groups representing a real threat to democracy, a credible threat to governance and an unpredictable and unsettling presence of anger and dissent against centrist and left leaning political groups, especially anyone associated with, or supporting, Black Lives Matter causes.
So where does this leave President Trump and his cronies?
Well, despite the chaos of 6th January, many Trump supporters remain loyal. Even if a few law-makers have had enough of Trump’s antics, and some can stop pretending they are loyal for career aspiration reasons, there is still a massive, angry base of (mostly) white, mostly working-class Americans who don’t see a bright future for their country. They see change, they see a pivot into more socialist policies; they see progress on poverty and on human rights; they see ethnic minorities given a chance; they see social media conspiring against them. And they’re afraid and they’re angry …
So the real question is: is Joe Biden and his administration capable of the leadership required to steer the United States through this volatile and troubling period?
I’m honestly not sure, and Trump is certainly not just going to disappear, nor will his supporter’s key grievances.
So America, once again, we will be watching. We’re a little bit worried about you. But we’ll try and help the best we can :)
The Psychograph
