How Did We Get Here?

FABRIZIO GOWDY | JAN. 19, 2021 | OPINIONS

Like many Americans, I watched with horror on Jan. 6 as a violent mob stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of a legitimate election. 

In this somber moment for our country, one of the darkest in recent memory, we ought to take a long hard look at ourselves and ask why this happened. I believe increased tribalism, the consolidation of power in the executive branch, a media apparatus that profits off anger, misinformation, and division, and the dangerous normalization of political violence all contributed to the insurrection on Jan. 6.

Just 20 years ago, as we enjoyed the height of our power internationally, American domestic affairs were also very stable. In an election much closer than this past one, Texas Gov. George W. Bush was elected president. Just 537 votes in Florida decided the outcome and litigation went on for five weeks, but at the end of it all, we were able to have a relatively smooth, peaceful transition of power. Why? Because hyper partisanship had not yet infected our politics, and Bush and his opponent Vice President Al Gore were not all that different. A Pew survey conducted before the 2000 election found only 46 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans said it “really mattered who won the election.”  

Since 2000, we have become far more tribal and partisan. In 2020, when Pew asked if it really mattered who won the election, 85 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans said the outcome really mattered. Social issues like abortion, immigration, gun rights, LGBTQ rights, and religious freedom, the divisive issues that splinter our society and make up the “culture war,” have come to dominate politics. 

At the same time, congress has become more dysfunctional, placing increasing importance on executive orders and judicial appointments. The executive branch has more influence on culture war politics than ever, which is why Americans care so much more than they used to about who sits in the oval office. With the stroke of a pen, President Trump was able to ban transgender people from the military. With the same stroke of a pen, President-elect Biden will be able to force biological female athletes to compete with trans girls, something his campaign platform pledges to do on day one. We could return power to Congress and state governments, but that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon. 

Americans dread and fear four whole years of the other party controlling the powerful executive branch. Elections have taken on a strange, existential quality not typically seen in democracies. “Vote like your life depends on it, because it does!” This battle cry has been echoed by prominent Democrats, including former First Lady Michelle Obama and President-elect Joe Biden himself. On the right, we hear calls to “take America back,” and see the hashtag “#wegotacountrytosave.” 

This rhetoric should not exist in a country like ours, where elections are not life and death events. Opposition party leaders are not rounded up and jailed or killed when their opponents gain power. But these slogans imply that people’s lives or the fate of the country hinges on an election. If we take these words literally, then why wouldn’t an act like storming the capitol be justified? If our lives depend on the outcome of an election, wouldn’t a violent riot be necessary to “save America?” We need to reject this irresponsible, inflammatory language and purge it from our political discourse. We have to realize that losing an election is not the end of the world.

At the same time that tribalism has increased and the culture war has heated up, our news media landscape has deteriorated. Small, relatively non-partisan, local papers have been decimated by the internet. Over 2,000 local publications and 30,000 journalists have been laid off just in the last 10 years, according to PBS. The remaining publications are understaffed and owned by larger media companies. This trend has also affected local TV news channels, over 40 percent of which are now owned by one company: Sinclair Broadcast Group. 

Journalism is a sick, dying industry, which is why many Americans now get their news from sources tailored to give them exactly what they want to hear. Partisan outlets like Brietbart and NowThis News feed our appetite for one-sided content, filling our social media feeds with sensational, inflammatory, and often flat out inaccurate stories. 

When our elections become ultra-important and we combine an angry, misinformed, culturally divided population with a media infrastructure tailored to our worldview, it is not surprising that our tolerance for political violence has increased. In October, Politico reported that 44 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of Democrats said that violence would be at least “a little justified” if the other party won the 2020 election. Political violence should not be normal or acceptable in a Western democracy. Even if we feel a cause is justified, we cannot accept violent protests as a means to further that cause. 

In the wake of last week’s Capitol riot, some drew parallels to the riots that occurred in conjunction with Black Lives Matter protests this past summer. Supporters of the racial justice movement were quick to criticize these parallels, arguing that BLM is a just cause, while the mob that attacked the Capitol was operating on unfounded conspiracy theories. I agree wholeheartedly that BLM was a far worthier cause than the baseless effort to overturn the election. But if we are willing to accept violent protest depending on the movement and the cause, then who is to say which causes are just and which are not? Who among us will be the judge? That is the danger in legitimizing violence as a valid means of protest.

We cannot go down this slippery slope. If we are to preserve a civil society and save the peaceful transition of power in this country, we must oppose all political violence. We cannot normalize violent protest, even if we back the cause of the protestors. 

As we prepare to swear in a new President, we hear vague calls for “healing” and “unity,” just as we did in January 2017. I want unity; at noon tomorrow, Joe Biden will be my President. I may have policy-based disagreements with him, but I desperately want Biden to succeed for the same reason I would want the pilot of my plane to succeed. But unless we confront the underlying issues driving the division in our country, I am skeptical there will be any serious unity. I hope I am wrong.