Nothing new under the sun

Posted 8.40am UK time

Events in the U.S. last night did not signify the end of the Roman Empire — just the latest spasm of fury in a nation host to many zealots of various stripes.

In 1932, for example, amid the desperation of the Great Depression, the Bonus Army — forty-three thousand men, including twenty thousand WWI veterans — marched on the Capitol. Outside the Congress, they were broken up by a cavalry charge ordered by a certain Major George S. Patton.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Anarchy in the Free World

Posted 10.20pm UK time

During this afternoon’s Senate hearing on the confirmation of Biden’s electoral votes, a large group of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.. Incited by Trump’s accusations that the November election was rigged, they broke past police barriers, and began roaming through the building. One woman who stormed the building is in critical condition, having been shot by security. The Vice President, Mike Pence, was bundled out of the Senate chamber by security, whilst other lawmakers were prominently evacuated. The D.C. Mayor ordered a 6pm curfew in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

Make no mistake – in any democracy, this is a crisis. I wonder how all these Trump supporters would have reacted if, four years ago, Clinton supporters had left the protest outside and begun disrupting the Electoral college voters from casting their ballots in a swing state the President had won? To those outside the Capitol building now, this is not a repeat of the revolution of 1776 – it is akin to the coup which started the civil war in 1861, where half the country couldn’t accept the election of a President they didn’t like. It is safe to say that an era of political stability in the United States – if there was one – has died.

Read more here.