How America had an attempted coup and what it means for democracy worldwide?
Can this happen in the US too? Such resounding impressions have been reverberating throughout the world media since 6th Jan, when Donald Trump instigated a riotous mob to storm a Congress session that was being held to certify victory of Joe Biden in elections last November, while the world looked at these developments in Washington DC with wonder. The scenes had their resemblance to Venezuela or Turkey, or even the worst analogy could be drawn with Boris Yeltsin’s “murder of democracy” in the 1990s.
Political analysts know that it was only 30 years ago that Yeltsin was tipped by US intelligence for a lethal assault on his rivals, the communist deputies in the Duma. As per Seymour Hersh’s 1994 disclosures about a US-aided coup, Yeltsin was on the verge of exploding his parliament. He was helped by US intelligence who intercepted the Russian military channels of communication to decipher such confidential information. Was it vice versa this time or is there anything similar in the recent US fiasco? Had it any ‘foreign linkage’? Was it only a vent to Trump’s hurt ego or there was something ‘fishy’ behind such a ‘disgraceful’ move by him? Was it an attempted Coup? All such whims and illusions need to be thought over because this kind of a step is quite unprecedented in the past 243 years of American history!
Having said this, the events as they transpired on 6th Jan cannot be termed as a coup. Though, how the media presented all this episode need to be evaluated. It can be a journalistic exaggeration to increase the curiosity of the readers or the viewers for rating purposes towards a certain event but in any sense or definition, it cannot be termed as a coup. First, it was only a resistance to delay the certification of election results which is nowhere near what a coup is. Second, it was a demonstration of resentment against the election results. Thirdly, it was not done by any militias or armed forces – there was no mutiny in the military. It was a mob demonstration that had gone violent. Fourthly, no clandestine movement or conspiracy had been behind this protest. It was only that supporters of one lost candidate gathered in large numbers on his instigation and trespassed the Congress security corridor, broke glasses of the building, and desecrated the sanctity of the legislative assembly.
Because it happened in the USA and because it is very unconventional for the USA to have some event like this, as it has not happened previously, that is why it looked so unusual. And for this very reason, the response of not only the national but international media over it was very vociferous. It might not be the enormity of the events that took place actually on that day, it is rather the optics of those events that has made it significant and all kind of figurative language has been used to portray it. Optics matters a lot in today’s world and as far as media is concerned, it is all the game of optics. Implying that it depends on the media how they present something or how they want to present something, they can mold the public opinion on anything as they want to. This kind of act can be condemned to the maximum extent and the leaders and political workers must be discouraged but phrasing such an event as a ‘coup’ is unjustified, and that especially in a country like the United States. This is the reason that some American newspapers have been sagacious. They have published articles explaining what a coup is, how it takes place, and what happens after the coup, attempting to dispel the impression about the Capitol incident as a coup. Lest the American public might stagger by the over-doze of propaganda on their national as well as international media. Because excessive propaganda induces instability and anarchy in societies.
The United States has had a long history of political interventions and regime changes in various nations across the world. It implies actions taken by the US government visibly or invisibly to influence, preserve, replace, or change overseas governments. Examples of such regime changes instigated by the US in recent history can be countries of Latin America, Central America, and the southwest Pacific, like Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, etc. Besides it, to maintain its political hegemony and safeguard its economic interests, the USA has also been supporting autocratic regimes, cruel dictatorships, and brutal military annexations. Thinking from their point of view, the optics of the Capitol Hill fiasco might have made them happy who have been subject to American hegemony. It might have solaced them for a while that this can happen to America as well, what had been thrust upon them by the superpower. However, putting the passions aside, the logical implication of such an event is the international image of the US.
Events like this weaken the moral capacity of the sole superpower of the world to advocate and promote the ideology of the majority rule system, civil liberties, and democratic values to other countries of the world. Other countries can now question the efficacy and believability of this ideology because it is itself in jeopardy in the USA. Though the damage has been done, it is now a challenge for Joe Biden to reinstate the confidence of his people and the international community in the American democratic system that has been its hallmark over two centuries. Though it is a long-term process and might not be possible by an incumbent in a single term, tangible, meaningful, and concrete steps can be taken to mend the loopholes in the system.
Nevertheless, there are domestic implications of such an event for the US also. The public and private overtures by Trump reveal that he has not accepted the results of the Nov 3 elections. He has been resorting to all kinds of undemocratic practices to subvert the legitimacy and transparency of the presidential elections. He has been an instigator behind bogus votes; his vendetta despite that the vote recounting in various states didn’t change his defeat into victory, and pressuring the authorities to ‘accommodate’ the voting outcome for him. His political conceit reached a pinnacle point on 6th Jan this year when he instigated his supporters to assemble as a mob and “stroll down the Capitol” to “request that Congress make the best decision” to “show strength” and to “reclaim our nation.” Though he failed in his political gimmicks - god knows what he had on his mind for doing it - but it was a cause of mockery of the US system of governance in the world as a representative democracy. Some analysts have expressed their skepticism on the transcendence of the American democratic system after this instance.
This is not the United States the world has known for over two centuries. The United States has been a well-guarded, tranquil society, least welcome for vendettas, coups, uprisings, and tensions. Though the liberty of expression allows protests, what has been happening under Trump’s presidency and especially after the elections is quite a distraction from its history. It is a new phenomenon that presses upon the think tanks to start worrying about American democracy. It raises questions about the foundations of American democracy, the majority government, and the security apparatus that needs to perform during the duress as observed on 6th Jan. The Capitol Police seemed virtually helpless on that day and an additional contingent had to be called from the small District of Columbia to rescue the lawmakers inside the assembly.
Instances like this speak volumes about the fragility of America’s majority rule system which now seems prone to rising challenges. The previous CIA specialist, Abigail Spanberger expressed his concerns on this fiasco in these words, "This is something we observe in the bombing nations … This is something that stimulates a demise of the majority rule system." As we have a look at other nations, the flimsiness of the majority rule system is more manifest in countries with legislative autocracies, developing nations, or struggling republics who are novice democracies.
As an endnote, the fault lines seem to have appeared in the American democratic system. There were 147 legislators, including 8 senators, who voted against certifying the election results. This is unprecedented in American history. Smooth transfer of power from one regime to another has been the hallmark of American democracy. Possibly this is the reason when the Congress resumed, Mitt Romney, a former presidential candidate remarked on that day’s event, “We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.” As it has been evident in various countries of the world in recent history, e.g., Turkey, Russia, Hungary, and Venezuela; democracies degenerate from step by step apostatizing, though it might not be termed as a coup, but it causes more loss to nations and disrupts the social fabric of societies over a period. A close observation of struggling democracies demonstrates that leaders assume power through an electoral system but then subvert democratic values, misuse democratic institutions for their self-interest, and modify laws to acquire perpetual and unbridled power. They end up making their countries democracy, in theory, dictatorship in practice.