By now, you will have already seen the endless stream of scenes from the violent breach of the Capitol building on Wednesday by extremist supporters of President Donald Trump. There was the guy belaying down the wall from the Senate gallery, and the police with guns drawn in congressional chambers. There was the guy strolling.
This is the new iconography of America’s 240-year experiment with democracy. Expect to see more of it.Only moments before those scenes unfolded, the good gentleman from Kentucky, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, struck a somber tone. “The voters, the states and the courts have all spoken,” he said. “They’ve all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever.” Then with all the verve of an undertaker on tranquilizers, McConnell cautioned his Republican colleagues: “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
Schier a political expert said there are deep cultural, racial, gender, ideological and geographical divisions in America.
‘It’s a simple, historical fact that the more diverse a society, the more internal conflict there will be,’ he shared.
He said leaders must lower the tone and citizens must open their eyes to opposing views.
‘People need to get out of their information silos, talk to people who disagreed with them and understand what the differences are and see if you can build bridges. Right now, the easy thing to do is to sit with people who agree with you, ignore everyone else and think that they are morally defective, a lot of people are doing that now, and that’s no way for a citizen to operate in a democratic republic,’ he stated.
Schier said change won’t come easily.
‘This is going to be slow, long, hard work, it’s not going to happen next year, it may not happen in the next 10 years, but if you want to move toward greater unity, you’ve got to develop a very gradual effort at the leadership level,’ he said.
As for utilizing the 25th amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office after the deadly day, Schier doesn’t see that happening before the inauguration, and he thinks the same f
‘Impeachment is a possibility, but that requires a House [of Representatives] hearing, the House vote, Senate hearings and a Senate vote and Senate trial, it would take months, it’s not going to be done in 13 days,’ he said.
Schier is guessing Trump will remain in power until the inauguration of President-elect Biden, but said that is just a guess, calling this unchartered waters.
