The Danger in Being Politically Aloof
The fact that yesterday's chaos in D.C. had been vocally planned for weeks in advance reflects the implications for remaining uninformed on political matters.
For today, I had originally planned on publishing an essay discussing how to incorporate forgiveness into one’s personal political sphere, with certain exceptions. However, given the riots, violence, and attempted overthrow of a free and fair election committed by terrorists in support of the outgoing occupant of the White House, I made the decision to shelve that essay for two weeks in favor of a discussion in regard to yesterday’s disturbing events.
Nearly everyone will agree that politics, in some way, shape, or form, is a source of annoyance. The intricacies of the political process are difficult to understand even for the most well-versed political scientist, the near-constant polarized debates can bring out the worst in those with the best intentions, and there are often matters more pressing to one’s day-to-day livelihood than the passage of seemingly mundane policy proposals
But yesterday’s traumatic affront to the very foundations of the only democracy many of us have ever known reflects the danger in choosing to be uninformed on political matters.
“This is not the America I know.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of supporters for the outgoing occupant of the White House stormed the United States Capitol in an effort to stage a coup and prevent the certification of the results of a free and fair election.
Many around the country watched in horror in real time as images and videos published by journalists on the ground in D.C. showed congress members sheltering in place with gas masks over their heads, a rioter being shot and killed as she attempted to scale a wall inside the Capitol, and police allowing mob members to enter the People’s House virtually unabated.
But all of this could have been prevented.
In the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, the outgoing occupant of the White House tweeted out promotions of the date to his supporters, tweets which were largely dismissed by the general public as unimportant. Facebook groups, many of which were allowed to spread dangerous information in regard to the soon-to-ensue chaos, were not taken down, despite being on a platform which has made promises to monitor potentially dangerous content. A rise in alternative social media sites, where detailed plans as to how to storm the Capitol were discussed, received little attention.
And that’s not to mention the outgoing occupant of the White House’s near-daily onslaught against the outcome of a free and fair election, one which has included a never-ending thread of misinformation on Twitter and countless failed lawsuits, all of which have found support from Republicans in the federal, state, and local government.
Had more folks paid attention to these very clear and present warning signs, yesterday’s disgraceful display of disregard for democracy may have been prevented.
It is important to note that this by no means blames those who did not pay as much attention to political news as they should have for what happened yesterday in D.C. That guilt lies solely in the hands of the outgoing occupant of the White House and every single one of the 74,223,744 people who voted for his reelection.
Rather, this is to say that, for those who viewed yesterday’s chaos and took to Twitter to say: “This is not the America I know,” have a moral obligation to do better in educating themselves, because for those of us who have been informed, this is exactly the America we know.
At the same time, for those of us who have been staying up to date on all of these warning signs, I do ask: “Where was our call for those in positions of power to try and prevent what happened on Jan. 6?”
All too often, it is easy to dismiss the things we read as “out of the realm of possibilities,” especially when we have no real-world comparison with which we can point to as precedent for calls for concern. But if there is anything we take away from the events of yesterday, let it be the notion that foresight, rather than hindsight, is a mindset we should strive to adopt when it comes to the absorption of our political information.
I want to conclude this essay by saying that I genuinely empathize with all of you who woke up today feeling disheartened, angry, frustrated, and confused. We only have thirteen more days left of this current presidential administration, and even that seems too long of a time period to wait.
My sincere hope is that we all make it through these next two weeks, as well as the remainder of the pandemic and the ensuing political polarization which is all too likely to continue for the foreseeable future. We deserve to live under a country which fulfills the promise of equality for all of who call it home, and for now, as has been the case since the country’s inception, we must be willing to stand up for that promise.