Irish Examiner View: Time for America to choose democracy or rolling with the Proud Boys
Portland, March In The Third Biggs, Right, Across Berger Picture: Including In Organiser Proud Hawthorne Joe Noah The Of Bridge Oregon 2019 From Members Boys,
The US has been a beacon of democracy for the free world for more than 240 years, and there have been multiple occasions when we have all had cause to be grateful for that.
However, the events of last year at the Capitol shook every friend of the US — and they still reverberate.
The call to the streets by defeated president Donald Trump, the mob mentality, the wild-eyed QAnon shaman prowling the Senate chamber with a spear, the whiff of madness in the air, alongside the smell of strong cannabis.
In the ensuing 12 months, only the naive could believe that the cracks and fissures and the fragility exposed in a divided society have been resolved. The tensions and paranoia in far-right groups such as The Proud Boys still exist.
To paraphrase somebody else’s punchline: “they haven’t gone away you know”. It has been apparent from parts of the dialogue that marked this week’s anniversary that the repercussions of the Joe Biden victory of January 2021 still rankle.
The history of America is marked by political violence, but matters are poised on the edge of a different magnitude, one last experienced in the civil war of 1861 to 1865.
We should listen intently when former US president Jimmy Carter warns: “Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy.”