International Sharp Comment | One year following the riots on Capitol Hill, “American Democracy” got sicker!
Whenever Harper White looks at the dome of the U.S. Capitol, he thinks of January 6 a year ago. At that time, he locked himself in an office only a few steps from the lobby of the House of Representatives. After the gunfire sounded, he tried to hide in a wooden box half the size of his body.
On the 6th local time, the “Washington Post” reported that US Congressman Assistant White witnessed the riots on Capitol Hill. On the same day, White addressed hundreds of people outside the Capitol. And less than three miles away, a group of people held a rally to support those detained in the Capitol riots. Such a confrontational scene is a true portrayal of the deep division of the United States in the past year. This has shown the world: “American democracy” is getting sicker!
To this day, the two parties still have their own opinions regarding whether the Capitol Hill incident is a riot or a protest to safeguard the fairness of the general election, and the contradictions are sharp. The Associated Press survey shows that 30% of Republicans believe that the Capitol Hill incident is “not violent”; 90% of Democrats believe that the Capitol Hill incident is “very violent” or “extremely violent.” The politicians’ determination of the nature of the incident has become a testament to their allegiance to their party. A catastrophic event has become a tool of the party and government, which is undoubtedly a great shame for “American democracy.”
At the same time, the division caused by the riots on Capitol Hill has intensified the “veto politics” in the United States. Over the past year, police reforms, gun control measures, and economic spending plans related to people’s livelihood have repeatedly stalled, and social governance in the United States has stagnated. Many people worry that if the two parties continue on the path of mutual hatred, attack, and demonization, the operation of the US government may be paralyzed. This also fully shows that the “one person, one vote” type of democracy advocated by US politicians is only a mere formality and cannot protect the basic interests of voters at all.
More dangerously, the impact of the riots on Capitol Hill on “shaking the nation of the United States” has become increasingly apparent. A poll in the United States at the end of last year showed that more than 34% of Americans believed that citizens’ violent actions once morest the U.S. government were “justified.” This proportion reached the highest value in decades. Former US President Jimmy Carter recently published a comment in the “New York Times” that “our country is crumbling on the edge of an ever-expanding abyss. If we do not take immediate action, we will face a real risk of internal conflict.” The US “Time” and “Newsweek” also agree that “the ghost of the civil war is over the United States.”
If the riots on Capitol Hill a year ago revealed the serious illness of “American democracy,” then a year later, the various chaos in the United States showed that “American democracy” was dying. National Public Radio and Ipsos Group released poll results on the 3rd, showing that 64% of respondents believe that American democracy is in crisis and faces a high risk of failure.
Ironically, the US leader claimed in his speech on the first anniversary of the Capitol Hill riots that “January 6th is not the end of democracy, but the rebirth of freedom and fair competition” and gave pointers to other countries’ governance models. In an interview, Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi even shouted “Democracy has won.” This is like at the end of last year that Washington politicians deceived themselves and held the so-called “democracy summit” to teach others to class. The louder the slogan, the more thoroughly exposed the guilty conscience and panic.
Democracy is not used to make decorations, but to solve the problems that the people need to solve. In the current United States, the “democracy deficit” is shocking. Those American politicians who chant slogans need to abandon selfishness and hegemony, and treat “American democracy” as quickly as possible. If we continue to practice anti-democratic reality under the pretext of democracy and create confrontations and divisions, it will surely push the United States into a more dangerous situation. As the “American Magazine” put it, “When we see the smoke from the Capitol fire, it will be too late to get the water pipe.”
(International sharp commentator)
Article source: CCTV
Editor in charge: Huang Yang
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