US Capitol riots in Washington: Donald Trump knows exactly what he is doing

US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

For those of us who believe the electorate always gets it right, the US election result in November was almost perfect. The liberal Left who had protested, shouted down, investigated and impeached the President as part of their so-called “resistance” movement since before his inauguration had not been vindicated.

Instead Donald Trump was narrowly defeated with just tens of thousands of votes in crucial states tossing him from the White House with a spread of votes that demonstrated how his appeal to mainstream values on a range of issues from China and borders, to taxes and law and order, had broad appeal outside the northeast states and the west coast. So strongly had Trump confounded the liberal left and its cheering media that their talk of a Blue Wave was exposed as fanciful and the Republicans gained ground in the House and, for the time being, held their majority in the Senate.

So a President who had set himself against too many would be dispensed with but, given he had taken on the vested interests of the media and the so-called Washington “swamp” — and paid a heavy price of unchecked and unhinged criticism for doing so — and had made significant achievements in economic management and foreign policy, his party would be in a position to shape policy and legislation in the coming term. Likewise, a desperate and deceptive Democrat Party, spearheaded by an enfeebled Washington lifer, would not be given an unimpeded or enthusiastic mandate.

Protesters storm US Capitol

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The US might learn some lessons from a decade of polarisation and move on. But Trump refused to offer his crucial loser’s consent — the unwritten responsibility on which democracy relies.

And this is where he has undone so much of what he achieved. Sure, most of the political and media establishment would never have credited him with much anyway, but the facts would have stood for themselves. He could have accepted defeat, made some compelling points about the inconsistencies and inadequacies of the electoral system, and spoken about recalibrating the USA’s place in the world and its sense of self.

Instead he rejected the will of the people. Voters will tolerate much from their politicians, but rejecting their democratically expressed choice is not one of them.

The States want to redo their votes. They found out they voted on a FRAUD. Legislatures never approved. Let them do it. BE STRONG!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

This factor, more than any other, will have helped swing those two Georgia senate places away from the Republicans, now largely undoing a caveat imposed on Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump’s hissy fit has given the Democrats close to unfettered power.

The scenes in Washington over the past 24 hours have been disgusting. We have seen worse violence and more damage in riots across the US for many months — and yes, the same voices deploring the pro-Trump protesters were silent or making excuses about the anti-Trump rioters — but sensible people should not emulate the liberal Left’s hypocrisy. Such lawlessness is inexcusable; the fact it is directed at a democratic result makes it all the more worrying and, worst of all, that it was fomented and encouraged by the Commander in Chief and Chief Executive is frightening.

We should not exaggerate what has occurred — it is deplorable enough without embellishment. We should remember the liberal Left have spent months if not years encouraging dissent, law-breaking and “resistance” which has resulted in widespread damage, deaths and injuries. We should not be too smug in Australia either, where only 24 years ago a trade union protest, addressed by Labor MPs, turned violent and ended up with hundreds of rioters smashing doors, breaking their way into Parliament House and injuring police officers and parliamentary staff.

It seems unfathomable that Washington’s Capitol Hill security could allow such an incursion, given recent US history. But no excuse ought be offered for any protester breaking the law nor any leader inciting them.

Trump’s infantile refusal to concede, his reckless marshalling of powerful community resentment and his preference for bullying over legal processes cannot be tolerated by any political party. He could have served as the once in a lifetime disrupter who reset the focus of the GOP; now he is doing the party enormous damage. Still, the more he diminishes himself the more he will weaken his personal brand and allow the party to move on without him.

On the day of the election Trump visited the GOP’s campaign headquarters to thank staff. In Washington at the time, I found his remarks extraordinary and encouraging because for perhaps the first time he publicly canvassed the possibility of losing. It seemed he was openly ventilating the responsibility on his shoulders, how it was right to fight elections hard, contest issues in the courts if they arose, and that acceptance of defeat would be difficult but fundamental.

It is. But it has not been forthcoming.

Those words on election day suggest Trump knows exactly what he is doing. He should do what the Democrats refused to do after the last election — he should offer unqualified acceptance of the result and commit his party to holding the incoming administration to account and seeking to defeat it by proffering better ideas, rather than setting course on another destructive four-year campaign to tear it down.