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There's really nothing about yesterday that was "unprecedented" "anti-American" or "an assault on our democracy." Let me explain.
Last night Ben Sasse had some limited insight in his impulse to draw from history, but, as usual, his brain is all dressed up with nowhere to go. It illuminates nothing to examine the presidential transition of 1801 and all of the mythological scaffolding around it.
The history of Jacksonian democracy is much more instructive - so long as its extracted from the AP US History version of the story.
In 1829, huge crowds of "ordinary people" showed up for the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. They were served *orange punch.* Things got out of hand.
Elites, aristocrats, and the press expressed their scorn and contempt at seeing the unwashed masses, who had travelled from around the country from great distances, desecrate such a sacred space and institution.
AP US History interpolates this into trite shite about the productive development of "populism" and sort of what we now call "grassroots politics." We got taught that this was all basically good because normal people were participating in their government.
We saw elements of both of those bad analyses yesterday. It wasn't bad because people were pretending to talk on Pelosi's phone, it wasn't good because "the people" took back "their house."
The important thing to understand about Jacksonian democracy is that it was an evolution of the cross-class alliance between the aristocracy and free poor laborers. And you have to go further back in time to understand the correct context.
That alliance began in colonial America, continued when white settler planters convinced free laborers to accept a step above black slaves in exchange for consent to economic structures that maintain social order,
It continued through the ratification of the constitution and bill of rights calcified all of the asterisks next to "all men are created equal" in the declaration of independence. Effectively, whiteness became tied to citizenship.
In Jacksonian democracy, the mobs at the white house became lynch mobs. Jackson expanded opportunities for participation in govt, economics, education, etc., and, in exchange, white laborers deputized themselves to reinforce white citizenship.
It must be noted that this is fascism, and it was all achieved through the structures of electoral politics. And Putin didn't have a thing to do with it.
That's what Trump has been doing since before he was elected. He continued to consummate the alliance throughout his presidency. The chaotic scenes shared in the press yesterday betray the planned, deliberate, and repetitive essence of all of this.
Yesterday was the latest iteration, but the aristocrats only care because what Trump is doing is rearranging some of the furniture. They're only worried about whether this is a "coup" or an "insurrection," or, in Nancy Pelosi's case, Putin's orchestration.
This is American Democracy, and it always has been. It's really wild that the only frames through which the press can understand it all are cold war fever dreams or allusions to "banana republics."
The real danger isn't that Joe Biden won't be able to make love to his wife in the White House, or that we'll have some kind of Avignon papacy situation.
The danger is much more familiar, present, and objectionable. It's the continued evolution and mobilization of fascism, economic violence, racialized violence, misogynistic violence, settler colonialism, etc. and AKA American violence.
This shit has always been a threat to all of us. Hopefully it became more apparent yesterday. It's too late to pretend that this is abnormal, but it's never too late to recognize the truth and begin to get free.
Also, libs: the orange punch detail was for you. I hope you appreciate that I'm trying to level with you.
