Assault on the Capitol: the open wound that bleeds the United States

• Assault on the Capitol When a QAnon member disguised as a bison presided over the US Senate

His name was Juan and he was wearing the perfect uniform of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers or the Three Percenters: bulletproof vest with the words

, fanny pack with several pockets , a ski mask and, above it, a Greco-Roman style helmet with a red plume of feathers that gave it an air as if it had come out of a Greek tragedy.

This mixture of war garb with folkloric touches is one of the signs of identity of some members of the violent groups mentioned above that Donald Trump had already asked for support before the elections, on September 30, when the president, in A televised debate said, "Proud Boys: Stay out and stay tuned."

On January 6, 2021, Juan seemed neither attentive nor, despite his clothes, violent.

Nor did the more than 20,000 people - by eye - who were listening to Trump and his allies in the Mall, the Washington park at one end, about three kilometers in a straight line from the rally, the two were gathered. Chambers of

to ratify the results of the elections held on November 6.

The general tone of the crowd was rather depressed. The general feeling was that the president had lost. The day did not indicate anywhere that it was going to go to the history books. Nobody could imagine that in just under an hour something would happen that, a year later, has ended up creating the entry

in Wikipedia, and the publication of two books with a vocation as best-sellers predicting a conflict of those characteristics.

And, who least allowed to predict it, was Juan himself. The Trump supporter, inside his armor, his balaclava and his helmet, and after a trip by car "with a group" - without specifying more - from Lebanon County, in Pennsylvania, about three hours from Washington, did not seem enthusiastic. "I hope that something happens in Congress. I hope that what we want to happen will happen. That it be recognized that there has been a great level of fraud in these elections and that the necessary measures be taken to protect the will of the people," he explained with little conviction in perfect Spanish with inflections from his native Puerto Rico, paying no attention to Trump.

An hour later,

. Was Juan one of them? It is impossible to know. There are four Proud Boys, 16 Oath Keepers and six Three Percenters indicted or tried for the attack, although the United States Justice itself has recognized that more than 100 members of these three groups probably participated.

In total, more than 700 people have been charged. Of these, 150 have pleaded guilty. But only 71 have been convicted. The average sentence they have received is only 45 days in jail, according to the 'Politico' website. This is due to the attitude of the Prosecutor's Office, which in most of the trials describes the assault as an insurrection and then offers the defendants the withdrawal of all the charges against them if they agree to plead guilty to entering a public building without authorization. To the judges, that attitude of the public prosecutor despairs them. Washington Chief Justice

has called the prosecutors' strategy "almost schizophrenic."

In reality, the schizophrenia denounced by Howell should not be limited to prosecutors, but spread throughout the United States. The greatest power in the world today is divided into tribes that hate and despise each other. And nothing better to verify this than the attitude of public opinion in relation to the assault on the Capitol, with its four deaths, and its images of a "banana republic", in the words of former President George W. Bush.

60% of Americans believe that Donald Trump has "a lot" or "a lot" of responsibility in the assault. Among Republicans, that percentage drops to 28%. If only Donald Trump voters are counted, the figure is just 17%. One in four voters of that party supports the insurrection. If you take into account that Donald

, more than 18 million people come out in favor of the violent acts of January 6, 2021.

These figures, which come from online polls carried out by Momentive and YouGov for the Axios website and the CBS television network, are reproduced inverted, as if it were a mirror, among Democratic voters and Joe Biden. The assault on Congress was thus a heroic act, perhaps wrong, but with good intentions - 56% of Republicans believe that the motivation of the assailants was "to defend freedom" - or an attempted coup.

Juan's vision, which he himself summed up to EL MUNDO by saying that "I am here supporting the president and supporting the fight to maintain the Constitution," is shared by most of his co-religionists. For many Democrats, however, the Puerto Rican is nothing more than a fascist, a seditious, and, presumably, also a racist. In this way, it is

when the states of the South proclaimed secession so that no one could propose the abolition of slavery in the future.

A year has passed since the assault and the distance between the defenders and critics of the invasion of what could be considered with qualifications as the equivalent of Parliament has not only not been reduced, but has become abysmal.

Which leads, once again, to the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Every day it has become more common to talk that the United States is heading for such a conflict.

Towards the second Civil War?

Next Tuesday, the political scientist and CIA adviser

publishes her book This is how civil wars begin, with a provocative thesis that has been explained by the columnist of the 'Washington Post' Dana Milbank in an article entitled "We are closer to a civil war than we think. " For Walter, "if you were an analyst from a foreign country who observed the situation in the US, just as if it were in Ukraine, Ivory Coast, or Venezuela, and you go looking point by point, evaluating the situation, you will see that the US, which is a democracy founded more than 200 years ago has entered very dangerous terrain. "

Walter is not afraid

in a country with almost 6,000 atomic bombs.

But it is a period of violence with a population that has more firearms than the rest of the countries in the world combined.

As indications of that situation, he cites the assault on the Capitol, the killings of Jews, blacks, and Hispanics in recent years, and the attempted kidnapping of the Democratic governor of Michigan by Republican fanatics who opposed the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. .

But that analysis, nevertheless, is a

and the absence of dialogue in the country, because it ignores the dozens of deaths from the 2020 race riots and looting, and the 2017 attack in which a supporter of the Democrat from left-wing Bernie Sanders murdered a cop and seriously wounded 'number two' Republican in the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise.

In September, the world's most influential think tank, the Brookings Institution, held a debate with the title "Is the US headed for a second Civil War?" and last month, Canadian writer

published the book 'The Next Civil War. Chronicles from the future of the USA '. Because it's not just about something intellectual. A 2019 poll by Republican consulting firm Rasmussen revealed that 31% of Americans consider the country "likely" to "experience a civil war in five years."

A year earlier, conservative historian

, of the Hoover Institution think tank, had asked himself in The National Interest, which is one of the magazines that set the tone for the Republican Party: "How, when, and why has the United States come to the brink of a civil war? "

They are reflections that just a few years ago would have been inconceivable.

Assault on the Capitol?

A president who refuses to carry out a peaceful transfer of power?

They are also unanswered questions, the symbol of a giant that has sustained the world for seven decades, which is the idea of ​​democracy in the US, if not fallen, yes questioned.

Because, as Volodimir Zelensky, the president of a country, Ukraine, which has experienced several assaults on its own Congress, summed up, "it is difficult to see the United States as a symbol of democracy after the assault on the Capitol."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• U.S

• Donald trump

• Joe biden

US Capitol robbers sentenced to almost four years in prison

United StatesThe city of Washington sues far-right groups over the assault on the Capitol

United StatesA year of the tweet that burned Western Sahara

See links of interest

• Last News

• Translator

• 2022 business calendar

• How to

• Check Christmas Lottery

• Home THE WORLD today

• Check Child's Lottery

• Children's lottery 2022

• Serbia vs Spain: D. Lajovic - R. Bautista, live

• FC Cartagena - Valencia CF

• Eibar - Majorca

• Leganés - Real Sociedad

• Linares Deportivo - Barcelona