Why the January 6 Capitol riot hearings matter to us

Sunday, 12 June 2022

One of former President Trump’s former ally’s has spoken out.

Ted Zorn is a professor of organisational communication at the Massey Business School, Te Kura Whai Pakihi, Massey University.

Last Thursday in the USA, after nearly 18 months of investigation and deliberation, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol began public hearings.

These hearings may seem to some New Zealanders as mundane government operations in another country that have nothing to do with us.

Similarly, the actual attack may seem like just another purely American phenomenon, like the weekly news of mass shootings. It may seem far removed from what could happen in New Zealand.

Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President in Washington on January 6, 2021, shortly before a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

But I’m not so sure. I think New Zealanders should pay close attention.

In the January 6 public hearings, we are witnessing not just a trial about a riot that got out of control, but a battle between democracy and authoritarianism that is still far from settled.

What the Committee is trying to demonstrate is that January 6 events in Washington were planned and part of a larger effort to subvert democracy that continues to this day.

Rioters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. The attacks shook America’s long-held assumptions of its democratic traditions.

As chairman of the committee Bennie Thompson said in his opening remarks: “January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup… It represented Trump’s last, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power”.

Remember, this is a country that proudly spoke of the peaceful transfer of power between administrations that had taken place for more than 230 years.

As an American (I have dual citizenship), that has certainly been a source of pride for me. Despite its problems, America had represented the sustainability of democracy. All that changed in January 2021.

The chairperson of the select committee investigating the January 6 attacks, Democrat congressman Bennie Thompson, with the vice-chair, Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, at the opening of the committee’s public hearings.

What’s worse, efforts to subvert that democracy continue. Trump continues to press his supporters in congress to “rescind” the 2020 election.

Many of his supporters continue to minimise the significance of the January 6 attack. For example, one congressman likened those who breached the Capitol to a “normal tourist visit”.

Most importantly, Republican state legislatures around the country have used the disproven claims of election fraud that motivated the attack to justify law changes to suppress voter participation and skew vote counting in future elections. So, what some have called a “slow motion coup” continues.

Ted Zorn, a professor at Massey Business School in Auckland, who holds dual New Zealand-US citizenship, thinks New Zealanders should be paying attention to the investigations into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

How democracy unravels

How did a country that stood as a pillar of democracy find itself in such a place? And could it happen to us here in New Zealand?

Certainly, some of the forces that led to this clash in the US are not major problems in New Zealand, and maybe never will be. But that is far from certain.

Those forces include extreme political polarisation.

The final stages of the parliamentary protest in February-March, which marked a new level of social fragmentation in New Zealand.

The two major political parties in the US are ideologically more divided today than they have been in at least 50 years. And while a recent study comparing 12 OECD countries over four decades found the USA experienced by far the greatest polarisation, New Zealand was one of four other countries experiencing a rise in polarisation.

Also noteworthy was a study finding that among the contentious issues contributing most to the divide in the USA are immigration, racial equity and Covid-19 policy.

Sound familiar? These issues are often controversial and polarising in New Zealand as well.

Fortunately, some of the other issues behind polarisation in the USA – policing policy, gun legislation and voting integrity – are not as prominent here.

But political polarisation is only part of the problem. The divide in the USA goes well beyond disagreements about policy.

Rather, a form of polarisation has emerged in which “the other side” is seen as morally repugnant with no common ground possible.

Referred to as political sectarianism or political tribalism, this kind of world view can be used to justify violence and a decision simply not to look for ways to cooperate, and not to allow elections to decide who governs. That is a recipe for ditching democracy and embracing authoritarianism.

Feeding this toxic mix is the tendency of many people to select news sources that confirm, harden and polarise their political views, even when those views are based on disinformation.

While New Zealand does not have the mix of popular politically aligned television news networks that the USA has, New Zealanders can and do easily retreat to social media and websites that serve the same purpose.

Just like the Christchurch shooting showed us that mass shootings are not just an American problem, the February 2022 protests around Covid-19 and the related vitriol levelled at the Prime Minister showed signs of social fragmentation and political sectarianism that we should not dismiss too quickly.

We should not be too quick to say, “it can’t happen here”.