The Capitol Takeover: A Prelude to Civil War?
The Capitol Takeover: A Prelude to Civil War?
By: claycormany in Life in General
I was going to do a book review for my first blog of 2021, but in the wake of what happened last week in Washington, D.C., I’ve decided the book review can wait.
Like every other civilized person, I was horrified by the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, instigated by a mob of Trump supporters egged on by the President himself. As an editorial by Courtney Subramanian pointed out, the violent assault “illuminated just how far supporters of President Donald Trump were willing to go to vent their anger over…false claims of a stolen election.” (Note: Not all the people who came to protest the election results participated in the attack.) By now, several images have emerged, showing the confrontations and chaos that occurred inside the Capitol while the break-in forged ahead: rioters smashing down doors, the Capitol police officer being chased up a flight of stairs, the rioter with his feet propped up on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, the so-called QAnon shaman with his buffalo headdress.
As of today, the pressing question is whether President Trump will be allowed to finish his term, which has little more than a week left. A second impeachment effort is taking shape in Congress, and seems likely to garner at least some Republican support in both the House and Senate. But impeached or not, Trump will be out of the White House within the next 10 days. For me, two long-range questions need to be asked. First, what are Trump’s more-extreme supporters going to do after he is out of office? An editorial by Randy Ludlow in today’s Columbus Dispatch suggests they may not fold up their tents and fade into the night. Evidently, far-right online forums are calling for “an armed march on all state capitals” and specifically mentioned Columbus as a target. In addition, Ludlow cites an internal FBI memo advising police agencies to increase security at statehouses and other government buildings that could be vulnerable to attack during President-elect Biden’s inauguration.
Second, and more importantly, is the United States on the verge of a second civil war? I believe that is distinctly possible. Consider these facts: A number of violent (and often bloody) incidents preceded the outbreak of the first Civil War. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry is perhaps the best-known, but there was also the 1850s Border War in Kansas and western Missouri that cost 100 or more lives among supporters and opponents of legalizing slavery in Kansas. The violence sometimes became personal as it did with the killing of anti-slavery journalist Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois, and South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks’ beating of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner. Could the attack on the Capitol, the August 2017 Charlottesville protest, and the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer be precursors to a wider conflict in the same way that Harper’s Ferry and “Bleeding Kansas” were? It’s at least possible they are.
The words of far-right activists are something else to consider. In the Subramanian editorial cited earlier, McCall Calhoun, a Georgia attorney who was among those to besiege the Capitol, is quoted as saying “as part of the anti-communist counter revolution, we’ve got to get serious about stopping them by force of arms.” Similar sentiments have been expressed by other like-minded individuals on pro-Trump social media sites, most notably Parler. And there’s this warning from Oren Koren, a scholar of civil conflict and political violence: “Once you engage in political violence, it becomes easier to do it again…. Having a history of political violence is a pretty strong predictor of future violence.”
If there’s a third red flag about a possible civil war, it’s the total disdain that so many Trump supporters and opponents have for each other, and their eagerness to vilify the other side. Trump himself has fanned the flames with his insulting comments about Democratic leaders, his accusations about “fake news,” and his unsupported claims about widespread voter fraud in the last election. On the other hand, some critics of the President have made the mistake of assuming that everyone who voted for him — some 74 million people — approve of everything he does and are therefore complicit in the negative consequences of his behavior, including the Capitol takeover. It all adds up to a highly polarized populace that may be ripe for violent conflict in the future. At the very least, it poses a stiff challenge to President-elect Biden’s pledge to unify the nation.
I hope my fears of a second American civil war prove unfounded. Our first civil war was more than enough.
Tags: attack, Capitol, Civil War, far-right, Trump
It has occurred to me to buy a gun. I can’t do it.
This has been a topic of great conversation in my world for the last couple of years. I think we have been inching towards last week for a long time, a serious step towards civil war. We now have a window of opportunity to unite under President Biden. Part of the action required is to teach and practice anti racism. If we dont act, the next attempt to change our government might be successful. I hope our fears are unfounded too. In the meantime…I’m thinking about my bugout bag:)
Yes, our new President does need to try to unite the nation, as hard as that will be. And please — don’t think about “bugging out” just yet. Becky and I enjoy having you near us in Worthington.
Hi, Clay — Great blogpost. I’ve actually been having a discussion with people about whether we’ve been in a “Cold Civil War” for some time. It’s clear there have always been at least two Americas — we see this along geographical lines, for instance, most notably along how there are still significant portions of the country that embrace the Confederacy as a noble, undefeated cause rather than an armed uprising that had slavery among its platforms.
If you’re a racial minority, like me, you know that your treatment vis a vis the people you interact with will too often be based on their perceptions of race and where they place you accordingly along some continuum in their mind. The nation seems to only have broad discussions on the matter when problems erupt, and then too often the issues are only Black and White when many groups face problems.
So, the divisions have been there, further exacerbated by pundits like Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, and their various allies and imitators and connections to other large groups, like evangelicals. Those efforts have been out in the open for decades.
All of this is an oversimplification, of course — not all Southerners ally themselves with the Confederacy nor do all evangelicals adhere to the right-wing rhetoric of Limbaugh and crew, for example. But clearly, the nation has been divided for some time, and people have been choosing sides.
What Trump has done is given license to the division on a national scale — he has, in effect, unified groups who share the same or similar ideology and radicalized their beliefs. The insurrection was an expression of that — whether the insurrectionists truly believed they had permission from Trump or not, they’ve used it as an excuse for violence and rebellion.
Do I think it will go further than this? Sadly, I don’t this was a one-time event. I suspect some states will face real problems on January 20. There will be more threats and random violence, especially against minorities. It’s clear that neo-Nazis and other hate groups have infiltrated the police and military (well, they were always there, but now they’re a lot more emboldened). For a while, at least, things may not be as out in the open because the insurrection has put the nation on the watch for such activity. But it will surface. While we may not have an armed Civil War, we’re clearly in the throes of a shadowy cold one. How far it goes will be determined by whether this country has the moral courage to arrest and prosecute the insurrectionists and their enablers.
Thank you, Steve, for your insightful comments. As you suggest, the scope and substance of the second “civil war” will depend on whether the nation has “the moral courage” to go after the insurrectionists and put them behind bars. The new Biden Administration will have to take the lead in doing that. There’s one other variable to consider. What is Trump himself going to do after he leaves office? Is he going to slip off to Mar-a-lago for a quiet life of luxury or is he going to continue rallying his “troops” to further acts of violence? I hope for the former but I fear the latter.
Thanks Clay. I’ve wondered the same thing. Do you think that many of those who voted for Trump were actually voting against a perceived (if exaggerated) threat of socialism? Too, I wonder how many of them will defect from their support of Trump given the events of the past week. I’m hanging onto hope that many of them are not simply blind Trump supporters and therefore may be open to Biden’s leadership. In my opinion, Joe Biden’s relationship with John McCain is iconic of a creative approach to political differences–a creativity that can possibly moderate the opposing tensions currently at play. If so, perhaps Joe Biden will have a chance to be an exceptionally effective if not a great president. What do you think? Wishful thinking?
Those are good questions, Jim. I think most rank-and-file Trump supporters will accept Biden’s leadership at least for awhile. As you say, the Biden-McCain relationship offers a positive model for dealing with political differences. In the immediate future, however, the most important thing may be for a fair number of Republicans in Congress to support Trump’s impeachment and conviction. If that happens, Republicans across the nation will be encouraged to not only accept Biden’s leadership, but also to resist supporting any disruptive tactics Trump may initiate after leaving office. Of course, Trump’s ultra-right supporters — the kind that assaulted the Capitol — are a whole other matter. At the very least, the FBI and Homeland Security need to keep those people under close surveillance.
I judging by the enormous increase in gun sLes recently, i am not optimistic.
That’s interesting. My guess is the increased gun sales are being made by people who expect the incoming Administration will make it tougher to buy guns in the future.