Op-Ed: This Has Happened Before

On the 4th of January, 1642, King Charles I of England attempted to storm the sitting parliament and arrest five of its members. However, the king was surprised to find himself rebuffed by a parliament and a city that swore allegiance to itself, not a monarch. King Charles had meant to conquer with swords and firearms, but within a week, he had fled London, and in six months’ time, found himself in the midst of a civil war.

The ending of this story is quite predictable. Charles the Martyr, a name bestowed upon him later by an England feeling somewhat guilty, was caught after seven years of downhill fighting, tried for ‘high crimes’, and at the end of the day, required his head be sewed back on for public viewing. Granted, we are not Puritan England nor should we aspire to be- but it goes to show what historical precedent there is for leaders who attempt to cling on to power. Charles’ act of insurrection against his own ‘loyal’ government resulted in the English Civil War- the single act of impertinence resulted in much of modern history- unstable English government resulting in increased dependence on colonialism, revolutions, sugar cubes in tea, and names such as Bulstrode Whitelocke and Zouch Tate, generally unpleasant developments in World History. Historians generally note that coups and violent revolutions do not improve life whatsoever, and often result in a worse version of the previous regime. Throughout history, we have seen coups on every continent except Antarctica (though penguin governance can be violent at times). However, there is very little precedent for coups that keep leaders in- which makes it all the more frightening.

High noon on the 6th of January, 2021, 379 years and two days to the day of the storming of Parliament, a president, who too deplored his own government (“we have the worst laws”) and found his whims obstructed by the country he was supposed to be running, declared to a crowd that previously booed Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence “we're going to the Capitol and we're going to… take back our country!” with the gift of a “big, beautiful victory, make no mistake.”

At approximately 2:15 in the afternoon, I had tuned into a live stream of the Senate debate on Arizona’s electoral votes. I will admit that I was in a breakout room, half-doing work (sorry Ms. Elana) and half-absent-mindedly listening to the Senate talk. Coincidentally, I was writing about previous legislative car fires while this was happening and did not expect anything to happen. Previous Senate sessions that I have tuned into included Zoom microphone static, screaming about beer, and Lindsey Graham singing (guess which one was the most painful to watch). After five minutes of general senatorial civil discourse, a video popped up in the commentary. The Capitol had been breached. A few moments later, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma was abruptly cut off by a gavel (Tom Cotton behind him audibly whispers in the recording “Did you say something?”). The Senate video feed ominously switched off. The House was still in session, and its video feed then abruptly shut off as well, but not before the Sergeant-at-Arms yelled: “shut the doors” with lots of gasping and anxiously whispering. At this point, it was not clear what was happening. The event, in all that we did not know of it, was utterly disorienting. Ms. Elana ended class early after I told her what was happening so we could watch the events.

I turned on the television (joined by my mother who was as stunned as I was) and watched as the most important building in the United States was ransacked by a group of people that could not tolerate just the word ‘no’. The man on the daïs of the Senate, the confederate flags, the cross on the lawn, gallows on the lawn, the Trump flag raised above the nation- what was this country that I was seeing?

Not out of naivete was I horrified but out of apprehension- I knew the safeguards on our democracy, I knew the purported permanence of democratic ideals, of humanity- I had no belief in institutions, but at least one would think the Capitol would hold up- it has lasted culture wars and civil wars- it has only ever succumbed to a foreign invasion and now a domestic invasion. I never once considered that it could be a possibility, I could not even get myself to believe that it was happening at first. I knew, or surely, I thought I knew that human will could at least give up. Now, it is no surprise. Who could have predicted it? Everybody. Who wanted to predict it? Very few. I thought that I knew that.

What happened, one must ask, what happened? We now know more about this event than at least five signers of the Constitution. Its Wikipedia page is longer than those of Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Warren Harding combined. Some phantom of it has dominated the pages of major American newspapers for weeks- yet it is a phantom, a shadowy myth of an event, a specter of wrong. We still cannot comprehend what went wrong or what had been wrong, but instead, that it is wrong, a visceral, hazy wrong, a noun-adjective mush, an axis of evil around which the beloved ‘protestors’ revolved, a fiery flag pole/cross with a Trump flag on the top. What happened, one may ask? A mob induced by the sitting president stormed the Capitol to murder the Vice-President, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House, all the while, proclaiming their own utopian government from the Senate daïs. How did they get in? Why were they not shot? Why were a throng of white men not shot but in their stead, peaceful protestors have been shot, students walking to class have been shot, men and women (mostly Black and Latinx) existing have been shot, tear gassed, gagged, bound, suffocated, etc. etc.- treason is capital (or capitol) offense, why should other ‘treasonous beings’ be electrocuted for potentially helping annihilate America while thousands of people are free after plotting the annihilation of their own country and unlike the Rosenbergs- carrying it out. The greatest consistent event in America, the transfer of power, assaulted by the worst consistent event in America, the perpetuation of ignorance. The perpetuation of ignorance, be it by nationalist, bureaucrat, anarchist, militiaman, or fundamentalist, has been the death of America before. Now we cannot claim ourselves exceptional (peaceful transfers of power, economic booms, where are they now?), for we have continuously debased ourselves into this abyss- we must now prove ourselves exceptional by coming back together (a weary claim, but necessary). Congress and America must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately, from the gallows of whomever can seize power, beneath their cross, their flag, their shadow.

The rise and fall of tyrants has been like a great wave throughout much of history- never was an age in which we did encounter them- there are fifty or so currently reigning. Like gods, from the throne, they adore their own image and revile all else- a hideous mule before the crossroads. As our trusty Charles declared before his death: “no extremity or misfortune shall make me yield; for I will be either a Glorious King, or a Patient Martyr”. Macbeth did the same: “I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet”. The now ex-President, apt successor, parted us with “We will never give up. We will never concede”. The blotch of Trumpism on the world has made its mark, like moths in fabric, and as it has corroded nearly all remaining faith in government. It will take a sisyphean climb to restore it. As the ex-president flees his own doing, let the perfidy of his shallow hateful regime rot, and the regime with it. King Charles I said as he looked upon an unresponsive parliament, “I see all the birds are flown” and turned to leave. The stain will stay, but at least the twice-impeached treasonous golden pheasant has flown.