Entire world watching developments in US with bated breath post-Capitol siege

What happened in Washington DC on January 6 was truly a horror for the American democracy. At outgoing President Donald Trump's persuasion, thousands of his white supremacist supporters stormed the Capitol, creating violence and chaos. Elected members of Congress present there had to be taken by security personnel to an undisclosed location. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young Democratic congresswoman from New York later said, “I thought I was going to die.”

This is probably the first time in American history that this kind of incident happened. For those of us who have been observing American and world politics for more than three decades, and comparing them with what is happening in India today, this attempted coup d’etat was shocking, to say the least.

America has seen major political violence and riots since its inception: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X were killed, and immediately after the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. But never in its history, probably in collusion from some members of Congress and law enforcement agents, far right-wing extremists carried out such a broad daylight assault on the Capitol, where in normal circumstances, not even a fly could sneak in.

Why did we see such an unprecedented, violent revolt? Because a president who had lost an election was not admitting defeat, and was provoking his supporters across the country to reject the election results, spreading propaganda across the country without any information or evidence that the election was ‘rigged’. Under the banner of ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, militant right-wing forces, with their thousands of private media and social media networks, created an atmosphere of extreme violence, hatred and bigotry.

These are the same people who are vicious supporters of National Rifle Association and its powerful gun lobby, anti-government Christian white supremacist and neo-fascist organizations such as KKK and Proud Boys, and inhumane anti-immigrant laws. In the last four years since Trump took office, such organizations have mushroomed all across America. They took advantage of U.S. Constitution’s sacred First Amendment which sanctifies freedom of speech. Even hate speech is not explicitly forbidden in America, as long as it does not directly kill or destroy.

The American law enforcement has shown a completely different standard when it comes to dealing with whites, blacks and immigrant. Had the January 6 incursion been organized by Black Lives Matter or any other such minority movement, police, military and Secret Service agents would have surrounded them, arrested them, and large-scale bloody clashes would have taken place, resulting in injuries and deaths.

But here, far-right militias, a variety of Trump-backed white supremacists were able to break into the Capitol building almost without any serious hindrance – many carrying with them the racist confederate flag (and we even saw a few Indian flags in that violent crowd). This raises the question: is it possible for this to happen without any internal conspiracy or pre-planning?

In fact, a few Congress members have since pointed out that they saw reconnaissance-type activity by some pro-Trump legislators the day before who took militant activists inside the Capitol. Only further investigation would confirm this and disclose their identity.

The incident further raised the question of whether the forcible closure of the session of Congress and the Capitol building by Trump’s supporters is an indication of more horrific events coming in the next few days. News has been floating around that KKK and other extremists are mobilizing at all the fifty states capitols to create violence, on or around the day of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. The threat is so serious that U.S. Army has been deployed inside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and in states like Georgia and Michigan, with special barricades being erected to stop any armed militia from invading.

Clearly, Georgia and Michigan are two prime targets for far right-wing extremists, because just before the November elections, they unsuccessfully tried to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s governor, at gunpoint, and a Deep South conservative state Georgia elected both of its two Senate members -- one of them an African-American -- for the Democratic Party, which caused huge embarrassment and anger among the conservative white Trump supporters.

Is the way Trump and his white supremacist supporters continue to create anarchy across America a prelude to the destruction of U.S. democracy? We have been witnessing for the last four years who the nationalist extremist white forces are behind Trump. Their fierce claws have resurfaced in every corner of America. Extreme right-wing militant groups and thousands of their media outlets have flourished – with support from secret donors and clandestine conservative sources.

The Guardian quoted a report from reputed Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that white nationalist hate groups have grown 55% in the Trump era. SPLC has listed 1,020 hate groups on their current survey, the highest number of such organizations in at least twenty years.

They want to create a reign of terror against blacks, against Muslims, against immigrants, and against all minorities. Many of them are supporters of Hitler and Mussolini: KKK has always praised Hitler and the Nazi politics of hate, racism and purge of their perceived enemy.

One might find strong similarities with RSS and Hindu Mahasabha with them, especially from the time Golwalkar and Savarkar explicitly wrote in favour of Nazi Germany. Italian researcher Marzia Casolari wrote about Savarkar’s deep admiration for Hitler and his Nazi philosophy. “The very fact that Germany or Italy has so wonderfully recovered and grown so powerful as never before at the touch of Nazi or Fascist magical wand is enough to prove that those political ‘isms’ were the most congenial tonics their health demanded,” Savarkar had said.

Savarkar and Golwalkar had both compared German Jews with India’s Muslims. William Du Bois and B. R. Ambedkar on the other hand had compared the extreme plight and suffering of America's blacks with India's Dalits.

The rest of the world today is watching with abomination Trump and his Republican Party's militant ultra-conservative – who are anti-equality, anti-science, anti-women's liberties – individuals and groups spreading violence and hatred. They are eager to destroy the United States’ democracy and constitution that is built and rebuilt on diversity and equality.

If democracy is destroyed in America, and if fascist powers can seize state power in the future through extreme violence, it will carry the same message of destruction to similar powers across the world. Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, extremist Hindutva forces in India, extremist Islamic forces in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and violent political forces in several European countries are today on the verge of destroying democracy and establishing dictatorships. They are looking forward to the events in America.

If the ordinary, pro-peace and pro-democracy 99% of the American people can resist this onslaught by Trump forces and carry the torch of modernity and progress, then similar people around the world will see a ray of hope. If not, the destruction of human civilization will accelerate.

(The author is a New York-based writer, labor educator and human rights activist)

(Views expressed are personal)