We published this YouTube Short on the fifth anniversary of the events of January 6, 2021, this lunchtime.
This is the transcript:
It's January 6, and it's five years since Donald Trump called his supporters to Washington and told them that the election had been stolen from them, that he was their rightful President, and he had been denied what was his.
He told them to " Fight like hell", and he told them to march on the Capitol, and they did.
I know there are disputes over the interpretation of this on the BBC, but the fact is that the Senate found that he was responsible for the claim that he made, that they should "Fight like hell", and that has had consequences.
As Trump supporters marched on the Capitol, the lawmakers inside the building who feared for their lives, including his Vice-President, appealed to Trump for support for three hours, and he did nothing. And then, when the National Guard intervened without his command, he told his supporters that he was proud of them.
He was indicted for this and rightly so, and he was found to be responsible.
Even Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans, said he had to be held to account for what he did. But he hasn't been - not properly, because time intervened and time prevented his prosecution, and then the Supreme Court ordered that he could not be held responsible for an act that was undertaken by him in the course of his duties. How we could interpret that as calling upon people to prevent the way of democracy in the USA from being brought into force, I don't know, but that's what they implied, and now we see the consequences.
We see Trump governing without restraint.
We see the whole of the US democracy disempowered by a president who has contempt for it.
We see that he is using his power to flout international law.
We see that people are being abused.
We see that the international order is being overthrown.
This is the consequence of failing to hold a president to account.
We are in an uncomfortable place, precisely because five years ago, nobody took the right action to hold Donald Trump for calling his supporters to overthrow democracy, which is precisely what he did.
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The power behind Trump this time around is more organised and more dangerous. It’s apparent Trump’s egomania is being used as a foil for others wishing to gain power and influence within the US. Trump is too conceited to see what’s going on and is happy to be viewed as the sole decision-maker and instigator of his government’s actions. His administration are at pains to emphasise that the president ‘does what he says he is going to do’. If (big if) the administration are held to account for breaking international law they have the perfect cover….’it was all Trump, we just did what we were instructed’.
Trump, of course, cannot see the game they are plainly playing, he’s just too vain and too dim.
The question is, how far are the administration behind Trump wanting to go?
It is my opinion that if Trump had not bee re-elected in 2024 that he WOULD have faced the consequences.
However, Trump was clearly elected (no divergence between popular vote and Electoral College) and people are receiving what they though they voted for. This in no different than Boris Johnson and the BREXIT fiasco except that Boris was thrown out of office and leaving others to deal with the BREXIT mess.
The next POTUS is going to have one big fiasco to deal with just like Biden did with pullout from Afghanistan.
There will be another POTUS.
Do we know how they wil be selected?
Yes. The architects of the ‘Dark Enlightenment’ project (qv) are simply winding the key in his back and and pushing him out on to the stage to see how much damage he’ll cause. It’s all part of a clearly-spelt-out plan – it’s not even a hidden conspiracy. It’s all set out in Wikipedia, for goddness’ sake!
OK, consider this, and I actually speak like this from the point of view of what we could avoid next time if we have the chance to start anew.
The ‘world order’ we speak of never was. It was an American form of order, in their image, no one else’s. Who had the atomic bomb first? Whose military materiel dominated the war? Who did not withdraw from the Pacific islands or Europe after the cessation of hostilities?
So, no I’m sorry I do not buy it. The post war ‘world order’ was predicated on the raw power of potential violence of the U.S. and was always extremely vulnerable to whatever unprincipled personalities were in charge of it at the time. And Trump is just the latest of a long line of reprobates who have taken up residence in the Whitehouse.
During this, under the very cover of the postwar institutions it helped create it is the U.S. who has hidden behind these institutions and been the biggest rogue state of all, its millionaires selling us snake oil Neo-liberalism at the same time.
I am all for a new world order with less North America in it, that is for sure. No rose tinted glasses for me folks.
I get that.
I am no lover of much about the US – including its concepts of justice and power – but the only way to challnge that, quite literally, is to challenge it and not walk away. So. we need to rethink international structures, not abandon them.
I can assure you that I see all the arguments and counter arguments about this but what I am really registering here is simply my disappointment and disgust at it all.
I mean, to see someone like Jared Kushner rubbing shoulders with the EU has got to be a new low?
Yuk.
That sentiment I can agree with
The 3-word slogan propaganda game, that has shown itself to be so effective in narrative control, is exemplified by such as the “International Rules-based Order” (thanks US State Dept) or “Stop the Boats” (thanks Australia).
The problem for the masses commences when the coiner of the phrase first employs it and the mainstream then parrots it back so that it becomes an ingrained unchallengeable belief that the coiner intends from its repetitive use. The link can/may be broken by actively not using the originator’s words back at them but rephrasing or explaining what the initiator is trying to do by that use. So when “International Rules-based Order” was first presented it would have been interesting to respond with “So, you mean where the USA makes the rules, and the USA imposes the order?”
Here’s a list of some prominent brands on our high streets, and the names of their US owners. Might be worth bearing in mind when next out shopping.
Brand (UK-facing) US Company
Esso ExxonMobil
JET Phillips 66
Coca-Cola, Fanta Coca-Cola Company
Walkers, Doritos PepsiCo
Heinz Kraft Heinz
Cadbury, Oreo. Mondelez
Ariel, Fairy Procter & Gamble
Gillette Procter & Gamble
Colgate Colgate-Palmolive
Starbucks Starbucks Corp
McDonald’s McDonald’s Corp
Uber / Uber Eats Uber Technologies
Cliff – thanks – but I am not sure this is what the blog is for.
Well I agree with you Cliff and will be boycotting any I don’t already. Sometimes a hefty boot in the bank balance does make a very good point. I haven’t bought a single Nestle product for years …..!
Richard, what your post captures so clearly is that the real danger was never confined to the events of that single day. The deeper threat came from the institutional hesitation that followed. When a democratic system experiences a breach of that magnitude and the response is delayed, partial, or procedurally constrained, the signal sent to the political ecosystem is unmistakable: the guardrails are weaker than they appear.
And of course, when an event like January 6 is not met with firm and timely accountability, it inevitably emboldens those who are willing to exploit such moments. Inaction doesn’t neutralise the threat — it amplifies it. It tells future actors that the costs of testing the limits of democracy are low, and the potential rewards are high.
This is where your wider argument about societal capital becomes so relevant. Trust, accountability, and the rule of law are forms of capital that require constant maintenance. Once they begin to erode, the decay accelerates. The institutions responsible for upholding democratic norms were stress‑tested five years ago, and their failure to act decisively has shaped the political landscape we are now witnessing.
Democracy rarely collapses in a single moment. It collapses when a critical breach is not repaired. January 6 was the breach; the failure to enforce accountability afterwards is the wound that has never healed.
Thanks
I have no doubt that Trump is a stooge who either doesn’t know he is one, or more dangerously, he is a puppet that has gone rogue, acting out his own twisted plan.
In both cases, he is using fascism as his political method. What is surprising is that there appears to be no opposition to his use of the military to enforce his will and sideline the democratic processes and the laws of the USA.
He seems too thick-skinned or self-aware to change his ways, which many who know him have said for a long time. So, how can we deal with him without upsetting him too much? That’s the problem faced by the rest of the world. The UK must look to it’s European neighbours and agree on a strategy to mollify him in the short term because he will be gone in a few years and we can return to a new normal, having learned our lesson not to let narcissistic psychopaths take charge of nations.
The lessons of the 1930s and the rise and fall of fascism at that time seem to have been forgotten.
Much to agree with
You say “having learned our lesson not to let narcissistic psychopaths take charge of nations.”. Who is the “we” implied here? What influence do we have over, eg, US voters? Can we actually prevent the UK electorate voting for Farage? I think this is far too optimistic.
Professor Murphy,
Today I saw a video clip of Steven Miller in which he used the word “neoliberal” in a reversed way obviously meant to attach the word to what they call “crazy liberals” in smearing the left. Beware. Soon the word will soon have no meaning at all, along with so many others.
Thank you for all you do.
Judy Blackwell
Noted
Thanks
The problem is much bigger than Trump. It is the entire power structure, White House, Pentagon, Congress, both parties, big finance, the Christian right, Zionism, a dysfunctional telationship between Federal and State governments, a dysfunctional press, and a long history of tolerated economic and racial injustice.
If Trump got “25th Amendmented” by men in white coats tomorrow, or met his Maker, not a lot would change – unless J D Vance has a different plan, not involving the Koch empire, Musk, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Apple, Big Oil, Bezos, Thiel and money, money, money. And that’s just considering the US domestic scene without Russia or China or the health of the planet.
It’s going to be up to the rest of us.
On July 4th 1776, the American colonists decided they would challenge a long-dominant world super-power, itself ruled by a deranged autocrat, King George III.
They succeeded. It needs to happen again, a quarter of a millennium later, in the reverse direction.
History is full of stories about the collapse of empires. Hittites, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Medes, Persia, Greece Rome, the Ottomans, Crusaders, Britain France, Spain, Italy, Incas, Aztecs, Moghuls, Genghis Khan, Chinese dynasties, the Soviet Union, the Third Reich, and many others that I’ve never learned about. One thing they all share – they all were once thought to be invincible – then they FELL.
By 1945, there were plans in the UK, for something better. People had been planning it and building it since before the war, perhaps to prevent revolution. My home was part of that, built in 1934 as part of a beautiful and much appreciated “garden suburb”, now one of the most deprived parts of Bristol.
It is time for us to deliberately turn away from the current neoliberal US-led tyranny. Unfortunately our political leaders lack the courage, the integrity and the imagination to take us forward. So we will have to do it ourselves one step at a time.
Many thanks.
I might borrow part of that for a blog post.
RJ
Well said.
My home is also a home for heroes, garden city vision, rising from the ashes of WW1. Inspiring!
We can do a Culture of Courage and Care. We will always have cowards and grifters.
The choice is to appease Trump or to join an anti Trump alliance with European and the non-aligned nations.
I’m not sure where Starmer stands.
Hé is leading from the rear with his hands in his pockets.
It may be prudent but it’s not a good look.
I can only hope there is a plan B but all the evidence is there isn’t.
Does anyone know otherwise?
[…] wrote this in a comment on the blog last night (I have edited only very slightly, for presentation […]
The US state has never been in a “special relationship” with any country despite the UK’s establishment bleating on about the subject. Blind to the truth tbh.
The US has only ever been interested in the US and only in the US interests because it wants to be top dog in everything.
The US will eventually fall like all empires, history shows that.
The sooner the better imo.
Canadian journalist Matt Gurney recently reported from an international security conference:
https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-we-will-never-fucking
Some blunt words for the US:
“America has blown 80 years of accumulated goodwill and trust among its allies, our American moderator was told. A rock-steady assumption of allied defence and security planning for literally generations has been that America would act in its own interests, sure, but that those interests would be rational, and would still generally value the institutions that America itself worked so hard to build after the Second World War. America’s recent actions have destroyed the ability of any ally to continue to have faith in America to act even within its own strategic self-interest, let alone that of any ally.
The officer then said that even a swift return of America to its former role won’t matter.
Because “we will never fucking trust you again.”
The Americans at the table seemed somewhat startled by the heat of that pronouncement. I agreed with it entirely. So, it seemed to me, did most of the non-Americans. “
I was sure I approved this earlier.
Apologies for the delay. I am not sure what happened.
“To be an Enemy of America is Dangerous but to be a Friend is Fatal.”
How many times has this played out?