January 6 plus 5

Five years ago today many of us watched in disbelief as a mob of protesters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, DC, egged on by a President who refused to admit that he had lost the previous November's election. During his four years in the presidency Donald Trump had deliberately sown division in the American public, putting family members in important positions, and using his high office to advance his personal brand. But in his first term, he was surrounded by officials, such as Vice President Mike Pence, whose principal job seemed to be damage control, that is, to put the brakes on Trump's more outrageous behaviour. Following the events of 6 January 2021, the House of Representatives moved quickly to impeach the President for the second time. However, the following month the Senate decided to acquit him of the charge of inciting an insurrection.

Given what Trump did on that dark day half a decade ago, he should never have been allowed to stand for political office again. As children most of us were taught to play by the rules and, when defeated in, say, soccer or Monopoly, to lose gracefully and to congratulate the victor. In political life playing by the rules is even more important, because public justice and the welfare of a nation depend on it. Here I am reminded of George H. W. Bush, an underrated one-term president whose letter to Bill Clinton on 20 January 1993 exhibited exemplary graciousness towards an opponent and successor. The contrast with the petulant and narcissistic Trump could scarcely be more pronounced.

Sad to say, with Trump returned to office a year ago, his presidency has far fewer officials positioned strategically to control his worst instincts. He has now surrounded himself with people loyal to himself personally, even if that comes at the expense of the rule of law. Trump continues to hurl insults at his opponents, to disparage the victim of a tragic murder, to threaten Canada's independence, to bully Denmark over Greenland, and generally to behave badly, exalting himself with faux royal touches in the Oval Office. Trump's actions make Richard Nixon and Warren G. Harding took like St. Francis of Assisi by comparison.

The story is told that in 1787 at the conclusion of the negotiations that led to the formation of the United States, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin a pointed question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin famously replied: "A republic, if you can keep it." That last part of the sentence implies that political institutions depend for their proper functioning on a public-spirited citizenry willing to support them and to participate when called upon to do so. Above all, a properly constituted polity requires citizens committed to the rule of law and immune to the seductions of a cult of personality.

One hopes and prays that the United States will survive the current President, who seems to be doing his best to savage a centuries-old constitutional arrangement with considerable public support. We know from history, of course, that political systems do not last for ever and that even the best constituted regime has a limited shelf life. But let us hope and pray that the end of one of the oldest continuously functioning political systems in the world will be put off into an indefinite future.