MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow marked the four-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by noting that, with Donald Trump’s re-election now certified, democracy has effectively been “lost” in the United States due in part to the expectation of violence whenever MAGA candidates lose.
Monday’s certification, presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris, “happened ministerially and ceremonially like it’s supposed to,” Maddow began. “And that contrast with what happened today versus what happened four years ago makes clear the profound difference between the two parties.”
Maddow not only highlighted the violence of that day, but the threats and intimidation carried out by Trump supporters periodically since then.
“Had Democrats won the presidential election this year, the whole country openly expected and was preparing for Republicans to go into violent, if not armed, revolt,” she noted. “But because instead Republicans won, everyone expected—and, in fact, we saw today—that Democrats would peacefully accept and participate in the transfer of power."
“And when a whole country expects guaranteed violence if one side loses an electoral contest, then the two political parties in that contest are no longer competing in democratic terms anymore,” she went on, noting that the supposedly “law and order” president-elect has pledged pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, even those convicted of violent crimes.
Democracy, Maddow said, has essentially been “lost” in light of this reality.
“That is part of what we are contending with on this January 6: How do we ever get our democracy back now?” she asked. “Because we have, in effect, lost it.”
“How do we ever get back to competition in democratic terms, which means, specifically: How do we get the Republican Party and the Trumpist right to no longer see physical force and armed conflict as the way they’re going to get their way, and hold power?”
