Yesterday -- Jan 6, 2021 -- was a historic day. Fed by lies and conspiracy theories, a mob protested the election results, stormed into Capitol Hill and raided the Capitol buildings. It was a scene out of a Hollywood movie about a coup in a 3rd world country. No one would believe that was actually happening in Washington DC. America watched in shock. The whole world was in dismay.
As I sat in front of the TV watching these incredible events unfold right in front of my eyes, I was uncharacteristically calm. Don’t take me wrong, I was supremely disturbed by this. But somehow, I did not panic, because I knew America was going to be ok. I knew the storm would be over and Biden would be sworn in as the next President of the United States. Sure enough, the police came in and took control of the situation. The condemnation poured in, first from the media (including the conservative media), then from Corporate America with many CEOs calling for Trump to step down, and then from even the Republicans, some of whom die-hard Trump supporters. Congress resumed its duty at 8pm ET, many of its members visibly shaken by the siege. But they did exactly what they were supposed to do, counted the votes and certified the results of the election. For the first time in a long while, the government actually did its job, fairly efficiently, I might add.
If this happened four years ago, I might have reacted differently. But for the past four years, I have been in the front seat witnessing America growing ever more divisive, disintegrating from a cultural civil war. The boundary of what the norms are, what acceptable public behaviors are keeps getting pushed and redefined. When everything is unprecedented, we grow numb and desensitized. Yesterday was just a crescendo, a climax in some way.
And that’s what gives me hope – when you reach the lowest point, the only way to go from here is higher. Contrary to the popular belief (including my misconception of America before coming here) that America has always been a beacon of hope for the world, the short US history is full of violence and turbulence. From slavery to the Civil War, from WWII to the Vietnam War, from the 9/11 attack to the Iraq War, every bit of the prosperity, the freedom, the equality we enjoy today came from hard fought battles. Democracy was never easy and it wasn’t even meant to be.
Democracy was built on the principle that all men are created equal. Sounds simple enough – “self-evident truth” as the Declaration of Independence would call it, but it has profound implications. Think about it, it means all men (and women), the smart folks and the fools, the elites and the “deplorables”, those who have high moral standards and those who don’t, are all equal, all have a voice that deserves to be heard. That is literally chaos. What if the ignorant deplorables take over? What if the evil people get voted into office? Those episodes happened. Multiple times in history. But eventually humanity always triumphed. The good always won. And as a society, we have progressed. A lot in the last century alone! Democracy was not built on the principle of expediency or efficiency, but on the faith that through a lot of debate, a lot of struggle and a lot of pain, we would grow stronger, better and more resilient.
It is this growing pain that America is experiencing in the last four years. The last two and half decades I have been in America happen to be one of the most peaceful and prosperous periods in American history. With the end of the Cold War and the extraordinary growth of the internet, America has enjoyed a dominant position in the world. It has become content as Wall Street continues to grow fat but innovation has slowed and the average American worker is no longer that competitive against cheap labor in developing countries who is willing to work harder and longer for less. The political turmoil is a mere manifestation of the inevitable reckoning America has to do: would its power decline like the Roman Empire or would it pivot? We are in the early part of the “seven stages of grief”, the denial and anger phase. That anger needs an outlet, an implosion of some sort, before it can settle down and heal itself. I hope we are at that point.
I’m not saying there is smooth sailing after this. Robert Kennedy was killed after the JFK assassination. Vietnam War continued after the Nixon scandal. Dark days are typically followed by darker days until they aren’t. Many public officials resigned today. The crazy man still has two weeks in the White House and he can do a lot of damage. Damage that may be beyond our imagination. But I’m encouraged that many Republicans have distanced themselves from the destructive force and most of the Trump voters stayed silent, hopefully because they finally see while they may have voted for him to protect their small businesses or their jobs, they are not “one of THEM” – that mob in Capitol Hill, just went too far. I’m not saying the Democrats should gloat – there is plenty to blame on both sides for where we are today and there are a lot of soul searching for Democrats to do as well – I’m simply pointing out that while the country is deeply divided, we do agree on big things like it is wrong to assault Capitol Hill and disrupt the peaceful transition of power. And once we see that, there is hope for unity and moving forward.
So on one of the saddest days in America, I saw hope. Hopeful that democracy is moving forward. It may be bruised, its fragility exposed, but it is preserving. Admittedly, I lost faith, many times in the last four years. But yesterday I emerged sanguine, braced for a wild ride but anxious for what’s beyond…
网友评论