I often hear that in order to make change, people on opposing sides of an issue need to reconcile and come to a compromise in which everyone’s thoughts and needs are taken into account. That we cannot move on unless we put our differing political opinions aside and reach a consensus.
Not anymore.
In the wake of a Trump-supporter led assault on the Capitol building, one which can best be described as an attempted coup d’état, what is the compromise? How do you find a middle ground between domestic terrorism and a functioning country?
Compromises won’t work in a nation where peaceful protests against police brutality are met with waves of law enforcement unafraid to use tear gas and rubber bullets, but armed insurrectionists are left for hours to lay waste to the Capitol building.
Consider this: compromises, by definition, require each side to yield something. Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and Nancy Pelosi have come to represent free healthcare, living wages, and support for federal stimulus checks. In contrast, many Republicans seem to not care about their constituents and prioritize their own self-interest. Prime examples of this are (former) Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who both, according to the New York Times, sold stock in January and February of 2020 belonging to companies that would be impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic after confidential Senate coronavirus briefings; although this was later not investigated by the Justice Department, the timing of the trades was, although maybe not technically illegal, suspicious. With political parties that differ drastically from one another, what is there to yield?
There simply is no more middle ground. One of the few bright sides to the United States’ situation (aside from having said goodbye to Trump) is that, perhaps, the “brave patriots” who attacked the Capitol on January 6th have actually laid waste to Trump’s political power. Banned permanently from Twitter, indefinitely by Facebook, and by extension, Instagram, and now having become the first POTUS with more impeachments than presidential terms, Trump’s power is dwindling. Before the Capitol attack, it seemed extremely likely that Trump would remain the face of the Republican party long after his White House exit. While he no doubt still wields power within the political scene, Donald Trump is wounded.
I won’t get ahead of myself, though. It is ignorant to suggest that the seditionists who attacked the Capitol are insignificant. Over 74 million people voted for Trump; regardless of whether or not all those supporters are willing to participate in acts of domestic terrorism, those 70+ million people still voted for the person who incited the violence in the first place. Furthermore, a recent poll conducted by YouGov found that 46 percent of Republican poll respondents support the Trump supporters’ actions at the Capitol.
It’s important for Democrats (or perhaps just non-Republicans) to call out the messages for ‘unity’ and ‘togetherness’ that Republican politicians have been echoing. Let’s not forget, many of them are the very same politicians who didn’t care about unity when it meant guaranteeing the safety of Black lives, when it came to providing Americans in need with stimulus checks, or when it came to putting on a piece of fabric during a deadly pandemic. The blatant hypocrisy of these Republicans is shocking, and it seems like a cover for those career politicians who fear the end of their terms to distance themselves from Trump and pretend everything else about their political background is a-ok. Seeing steadfast Trump supporters like Chris Christie suddenly realize the true nature of Trump after the Capitol attack is amazing; it is not as if inciting the Capitol mob was the first time Trump has done something that damaged the country. Democrats need to keep in mind that former Trump-loving Republicans are not suddenly good people now that Trump is out of office, and hold them accountable for their poor decisions, especially those in the past four years.
I hope that Trump will now face every bit of legal exposure that his corrupt presidency has shielded him from. At the time of publishing, Joe Biden’s administration will be in the White House, so please: President Biden, stop compromising with far-right Republicans. The time for that is long gone.