Opinion: The Day the “Third World” Came to Washington
And the world got to finally say, “We told you, so”
For a nation that delegates government insurrections and sieges as qualities of a foreign, non-Western, “Third World” country, the United States was surely silent today.
Millions watched as emboldened Trump-worshippers ravaged through the U.S. Capitol Building, looting and defiling government offices and chambers, and freely roaming around the halls of Congress, unfettered.
While supported in some conservative circles, the rioters were almost universally condemned on a national level, especially once matters began to become increasingly violent. Globally, too, several leaders expressed concern over the matters that unfolded in our nation’s capital.
But, while other nation’s showed concern publicly, privately, millions around the world likely felt a bit of relief and “payback,” watching the self-proclaimed “beacon of democracy” stutter into a kind of political chaos that it aggressively lambasts other nations for.
Payback for all of the criticism the United States dishes out, especially to our adversaries or nations that have not established a good rapport with us. Payback for the damage caused by getting involved in foreign political movements, especially in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia. And most importantly, payback for delegating ourselves as almost higher-than-thou, absent of the political instability of the “Third World,” immune to any radical insurrections because we all, apparently, know how to be civil and successfully engage in the democratic process, unlike anyone else.
Today, the world got to say: You’re not exempt, you’re not exceptional. If it could happen here, it could happen to you too.
And as an American, while it is true that we are far from perfect, it is embarrassing to claim ourselves as the “beacon of democracy” while our government could’ve easily been destabilized and held hostage by a radical right-wing insurgency on our nation’s capital just a few hours ago.
The insurgency was disgraceful and a threat to our country’s democracy. But, while we scrambled to save face, condemn the violence, and regurgitate the idea that we are above flaw and allergic to the barbaric “Third World” coups of the Global South, the Iran’s, Russia’s, Cuba’s, China’s, and North Korea’s of the world grabbed a cup of tea, sat by the fire, and observed as citizens of the “home of the brave” engaged in rather “brave” domestic terrorism.
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