Voters care about democracy. They just can’t agree on what it means.
How Jan. 6 stopped mattering
Today is the fifth anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a group of Donald Trump supporters intent on overturning the results of the 2020 election. Recounting the events in text can’t do the day justice, but when I rewatch video footage of that day, it all comes rushing back:
The rampaging mobs of Trump supporters, the Confederate flags, the Capitol police locked in a desperate struggle to hold off the rioters, the gallows erected in front of the Capitol, and, of course, the guy with the horned headdress, also known as the “QAnon Shaman.”
It remains a shocking spectacle, one without parallel in the nation’s history. Yet, five years later, Jan. 6 has been largely overshadowed by everything that’s happened since: Trump’s political comeback and election, his disruptive policies at home and abroad, as well as his corrosive rhetoric.
Just a few days ago, the president greenlit a brazen military attack on Venezuela, capturing Nicolás Maduro, threatening to kick off a new era of American intervention. It’s the sort of weekend that could reshape global politics and affect countless lives. America flourished in the age of squishy liberal international norms, and the “Donroe Doctrine” threatens to usher in more chaos and death in countless theaters.
But the world has appeared to be on the verge of change before — five years ago, we wondered whether America’s tradition of peaceful power transfers was over. When the insurrection failed, though, it seemed that Trump might finally face banishment; his hold on his party was weaker than ever, condemnations flew from staunch allies of the outgoing president, and even rank-and-file Republicans were wavering. And yet, here we are again.
The conventional wisdom has become that voters simply don’t care about democracy. But that’s not quite right. Voters do care, they simply have strong disagreements about what defending democracy looks like and what the real threats to it are.
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