AS OF the writing of this article, something historic has just happened.
Pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol Building in an effort to stop the electoral vote for Joe Biden, who “won” the 2020 American presidential election under questionable grounds. They scaled walls, broke through locked doors and drove the US Congress into hiding.
Some reported that the protesters were egged on; others claimed it was a calculated move by Trump’s political enemies. Whatever the case, the end result remains – the US Congress was stormed by Trump supporters, and blood was involved. There was even a woman who died.
What is happening right now is the institutional collapse in the United States, and with it, the loss of government legitimacy. This happened because the institutional powers in the US refused to audit the results of 2020 US Presidential Election (something the US government would insist on doing were it a foreign country).
And now, there is no way they can put the genie back in the bottle.
This event reminds me of our People Power Revolution. Although the situation then was not entirely comparable with those of the US now, both have one very important issue in common: the legitimacy of elections.
Ferdinand Marcos’ people claimed he won the 1986 election. Biden and institutional America claimed Biden won and refused to audit the results. Both led to popular uprisings.
The EDSA People Power protesters succeeded in their goal. It remains to be seen if the Trump Populists will succeed in theirs.
Any number of things might happen. Maybe, the situation will spiral further out of control. Maybe something else will happen; something no one can expect. The storming of the US Congress was certainly unprecedented in recent memory. I don’t know how this will turn out, but regardless, for Americans there’s no going back, and you can be sure that this will affect the entire world./PN
