On January 6, 2021, Americans came perilously close to losing its democracy and the freedoms that have always defined what America is. On that day, a determined band of extremists, including White Nationalists of various stripes, fascistic and violence prone groups like Proud Boys, motivated and incited by the president of the United States (and many members of Congress intent on stealing the election), surged into the Capitol Building, some of them waving a Confederate flag, one wearing a t-shirt with the word Auschwitz displayed, some determined to find Vice-President Mike Pence for the purpose of executing him. There can be no doubt that this was a mob intent on using violence to deny the will of the American people, who had voted to make Joe Biden the next president. There can be no doubt that the main motivation of this mob was not to defend the freedoms of the United States, but rather to abolish them. Not to protect liberty, but to subvert it. Not to protect the Constitution but to revoke it, not to build an inclusive America but to exclude people of color and certain faiths. Not to demand justice, but to violently rebuke it. Not to protect the right to vote, but to repress it. Not to honor the result of the election, called the fairest in US history by many authorities, but to repudiate it. Not to transfer power peacefully, the hallmark of freedom and democracy, but to retain it for a completely corrupt president who had just lost the election—both the popular and the electoral vote.
Why do demagogues win, why do they come to power as they are doing? Who supports them and why? What role do media play? What role is played by the digital economy that is disrupting everyday life? What about traditional jobs, will they be replaced? We don’t even have the tools to help re-integrate those working in the old economies into the new.
