An advertisement and the revived memory of George Washington. To mark the sad three-year anniversary of the insurrection led by Donald Trump’s troops against the Capitol on January 6, 2021, American President Joe Biden decided to launch an election advertisement aimed at reminding Americans of the singular character and history of this riot which, he has repeated since 2021, still threatens the foundations of American democracy.
In 60 seconds, the occupant of the White House affirms that “something dangerous is happening in America” due to the persistence of “an extremist movement which does not share the fundamental values of our democracy”. The statement is interspersed with footage of the 2021 riots targeting the heart of America’s legislative branch.
The message comes on the heels of the president’s visit to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday. It was there in 1778 that the convictions of George Washington and his Continental Army were tested by a trying winter during the War of Independence, making a symbolic and lasting impression.
On this little line in the history books, the president decided to hang the “sacred cause” of democracy, which according to him once again finds itself at a crossroads in a hostile environment. He also urged voters to unite behind him to save this democracy, on the eve of a new presidential race which should place him against Donald Trump, instigator of the riots of January 6, 2021.
Remember that this attack on Congress by the ex-president’s supporters aimed to prevent American elected officials from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, to keep the populist in power against the will of the ballot box.
On Saturday, Donald Trump also plans to remember January 6, during two political rallies that he will hold in Iowa. The state holds its caucuses on January 15, marking the first movement of the November presidential election. And the leader in the Republican camp will certainly tell a completely different story.
Variable geometry trauma
This is because, three years after these spectacular riots led by its radicalized faithful against the dome of democracy in the United States, January 6 is far from having left a trauma with common roots and interpretation in the population. He now even follows the ideological fault lines which divide the political universe, becoming in the process one of the driving forces of Donald Trump’s campaign in his new quest for the keys to the White House.
The phenomenon is disturbing as, on March 4, he must face federal justice, which accuses him of conspiracy to steal the 2020 elections, while putting the attack on the Capitol at the heart of this trial. But that does not prevent the main person concerned, who pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, from continuing to present this tragedy as “a beautiful day” during which the rioters had “love in their hearts”, a- he said last May on CNN.
To date, 1,240 people have been arrested by American authorities in the wake of this insurrection. Of these, 710 pleaded guilty to the charges of trespass, criminal offense or seditious conspiracy brought against them and more than 450 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from a few days to… 20 years.
But for Donald Trump, despite the investigations, the accumulated evidence and the admissions of guilt, these are above all “great, great patriots”, and even “hostages”, as he presented them during a political rally in Houston last November. Regularly, during these events, he broadcasts his own version of the country’s national anthem, performed by a choir made up of January 6 rioters who were thrown in prison. Above, we hear the former president reciting his oath of allegiance.
And the mechanics are bearing fruit. Between 2021 and 2022, the share of Americans who believed that Donald Trump had a great responsibility for this insurrection fell from 52 to 43%.
Mitigating the worst
This week, a poll conducted by the University of Maryland for the Washington Post showed that more than 70% of Republican voters judged that this insurrection took up a little too much space in the media space. Barely 18% also believe that the rioters were “mostly violent”. A perception shared by 77% of Democrats.
Overall, however, 55 percent of Americans believe that January 6 was an “attack on democracy that must not be forgotten.”
“A lot of Republican voters don’t like January 6, but they’re not obsessed with it either” and could very well support Trump because they oppose Joe Biden’s economic policy, the advisor summarized. Republican politician Alice Stewart, quoted this week by the Associated Press (AP). According to her, this segment of the electorate can say that “January 6 was not great”, but not worry too much about that since the event “does not affect” their “financial interests “.
Remember that nine people lost their lives in this attempted coup, as indicated in its final report – damning for the ex-president – by the Congressional commission of inquiry into January 6. A charge that Joe Biden’s campaign team wants to bring back into the news on Saturday by insisting that, “even during the civil war, the insurgents never entered our Capitol”, summarized Julie Chavez Rodriguez this week, head of Biden’s re-election campaign, during a telephone press conference. “But, at the request of Donald Trump, the insurrectionists of January 6, 2021 did it,” she said.
A reality to which the populist’s campaign team has sought to oppose for several months another, that of a world where now “Joe Biden and his allies” embody “a real and compelling threat to our democracy”, summarized in an email to reporters from Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles this week. “In fact, in a way never seen before in our history, they are waging a war against it,” it reads.
In playgrounds, this is called the mirror strategy, “you said it, you are the one”. A very childish concept that becomes rather worrying when exploited in the political arena, believes Daniel Ziblatt, political scientist at Harvard University and co-author with Steven Levitsky in 2018 of the book How Democracies Die (How democracies die). “When each side starts talking about the other as a threat to democracy, whatever the reality, it is a sign of a crumbling democracy,” he said this week. week, cited by the AP.