Is America so much better than what we’ve seen today?
SRISHTI KHEMKA: While my dad and I were driving back from a doctor’s appointment today, I received a text from my friend at 2:56 PM today on January 6, 2021: “Are y’all watching the news. This is insane.”
My dad and I pulled into a gas station, and I open the Apple News app. “Protestors are breaching the Senate floor” read the headlines. As my eyes widen with shock, I repeat words I can barely believe to my dad. He looked at me and said, “Are you really that surprised?” I looked at him for a long moment.
“No.”
This isn’t surprising. Over the past few weeks, and over the last four years, we have seen this president continue to incite and encourage white supremacy. Now he is screaming that this election is fraudulent and he has been cheated. “Protestors,” more accurately rioters, have been traveling to Washington, D.C. for “Stop the Steal” rallies for weeks, attacking people of color, and burning Black Lives Matter banners. This did not come out of nowhere. These “protestors” announced they were coming into town. Georgetown University warned its students of “upcoming First Amendment Activities.” As soon as we got home, I ran to the TV and have been sitting here ever since.
I almost chuckled when I watched these people touting Trump flags around and scaling the walls of the Capitol building, wondering where their masks were. We are in the middle of a pandemic, but overtaking the Capitol to challenge what has been claimed to be one of the most secure elections in American history is clearly more important. Ensuring a man who has been all but absent throughout these past few weeks during the worst of a national crisis— when 3,000 people a day are dying, when people are being evicted, when unemployment continues to rise— maintains his seat of power is what matters most.
I channel hopped to see how news organizations are covering this madness. As I continued to watch, my stomach sank lower and lower and lower. CNN began to show pictures of these “protestors,” who are truly insurrectionists and rioters and domestic terrorists, sitting in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s seat and the Vice President’s seat in the Senate. Shock reverberated throughout my body. This can’t be possible. But it was right there in front of my eyes: rioters are sitting in these important symbols of our democratic institutions and leaving messages saying “We Will Not Back Down” on the desk of the woman third in line to be the President. Soon after that, correspondents aired President Trump’s message to the rioters. He tells them to “go home.” He also says “This was a fraudulent election” and tells these people who have broken into the Senate floor that they are “very special.”
He may have told them to go home, but his mixed messages did little to stop the riots, as it is now 6:07 PM and I am still sitting in front of the TV, watching hundreds of rioters continue to stand outside the Capitol building past the 6 PM curfew issued by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. He just tweeted. He says that this is what happens when there is a “landslide election victory” and tells the American people to “Remember this day forever!” I guarantee that I will never forget this day. America will never forget this day. This day of absolute corruption. This day where right-wing domestic terrorists broke into the Senate. This day where the Capitol was breached for the first time since the War of 1812. This day where it is evident that being white is armor, as indicated by the extremely different reactions to this insurrection where people stormed Capitol Hill and to Black Lives Matter protests that occurred this summer.
I keep thinking about Joe Biden’s speech and his tweet regarding these current events. He tweeted that “America is so much better than what we’re seeing today.” I keep returning to my dad’s question. Are you really surprised? I would like to believe that America is so much better, but honestly, I do not know if America is. What is happening today was not a spontaneous incident that occurred all of a sudden. What is occurring today seems to be a culmination of hate and anger and misinformation and encouragement from President Trump that has been brewing for at least the past four years. I do not know if America is so much better than what we are seeing today, but I hope that it can and will be.
Srishti Khemka is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.