Debunking Right-Wing Spin on Trump Supporters’ Assault on Democracy
Even as a violent mob was storming the Capitol egged on by Donald Trump, right-wing politicians and commentators were already spinning the story. They denied responsibility and shifted blame onto the amorphous left. The arguments are wrong and dangerous.
Denial of Responsibility
As the violence was happening and even afterwards a common refrain among right-wing figures was yes, the election was stolen, but violence is wrong. Donald Trump himself provided a nice summation during the coup attempt: “We had an election that was stolen from us … But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order…” This narrative seeks to sever the connection between claiming the election was stolen to the mob terrorizing the Capitol building.
This spin doesn’t make any sense. Donald Trump’s own statement is logically inconsistent. He claims to want law and order. Yet, if the Democrats stole the election and continue to succeed, then law and order has already failed. In fact, if the election was stolen and every single legal recourse had failed, staging an insurrection would actually be restoring democracy and law and order. As an insurrectionist told CNN, “What are we supposed to do?” When law and order has failed, you must resort to other methods.
This reality bears repeating, both for right-wing people trying to weasel their way out of any responsibility and for non-Trump supporters somehow confused by the actions of the mob. The inevitable result of claiming the election was stolen is violence. Put yourself in the shoes of these delusional people and imagine that the election was stolen. To restore democracy you have no choice but to storm the Capitol and if this results in violence then so be it. The very fate of democracy is at stake. If I falsely believed that the election was stolen, I would support the actions at the Capitol or, at the very least, be sympathetic towards them. I think most people would be. It follows logically from the insurrectionists’ beliefs. Yet, people continue to speculate on why the Trump supporters did what they did and some right-wing politicians and media figures insist that somehow their favorite bogeyman antifa was responsible.
Who is Really Responsible?
This is where the insurrection is somehow not the fault of Trump and the right-wing, but of the Democrats and others being cruel and divisive. We need to heal and come together. What good does assigning blame do? It just creates more division. As of writing this, Ted Cruz’s Twitter feed features this false argument repeatedly. The insurrectionists protested for a reason. Shouldn’t their mistrust be taken seriously? Tucker Carlson provides his extreme version of the argument in a video released during the coup attempt: “If people begin to believe that their democracy is fraudulent … Then god knows what could happen? Actually we do know what could happen, it’s happening right now … [I]f you don’t pause and a learn a single thing from it, from your citizen’s storming your capital building, then you’re a fool … We got to this sad state for a reason. It is not your fault. It is their fault.”
Besides being rather melodramatic, the statement is rather sympathetic. In many ways, it is a version of what I wrote above. However, my explanation is meant an explanation and not an excuse. The insurrectionists are still responsible for their beliefs and why they chose to believe them. Carlson is being disingenuous. This becomes clear upon considering the mysterious ‘they’. Never mentioned specifically in the monologue, but, through its broader context, the ‘they’ is quite clearly the Democrats and likely Republicans that didn’t take baseless claims of election fraud seriously. In the last sentence, all blame is placed on them. For, in this magical scenario, the fears of election fraud materialized naturally as legitimate fears rather than as a result of propaganda from people like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson.
The reality of the insurrectionists’ claims of voter fraud being entirely baseless gets to the crux of the issue. Normally, people protesting or rioting should be listened to and taken seriously because their grievances are normally legitimate. Black Lives Matter protestors have their own experiences and an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting their claims of police brutality. Even some anti-lockdown protestors had serious grievances. The government wanted them to close their businesses without providing the necessary aid to keep them afloat. In the case of the Trump supporters storming the Capitol their claims are entirely baseless. There is no middle ground to meet them on, no way to compromise. Taking the election fraud seriously only feeds their delusions and makes the issue worse.
Accountability is the Way to Move Forward
Given that the claims of election fraud are baseless, the way to address what occurred at the Capitol is not to take them seriously. Rather, the way to move forward is to address why people believed the claims of election fraud. People that spread the information like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Tucker Carlson should be held accountable. The frameworks that allowed the information to spread should be examined. And, perhaps most importantly, the role that white supremacy played needs to be acknowledged. It cannot be denied that a largely white mob sought to overturn election results that the Democrats won because largely because of black and brown people.
Too much effort has been spent on placating Trump supporters in a bid to fix the country. The only way to fully placate them is to overturn democracy. The assault on the Capitol shows this conclusively. Instead, these efforts allow those responsible for Wednesday’s coup to escape consequences, while twisting the national conversation. Only accountability offers a path forward and lessens the chance this could happen in the future.
