Much of the world looked on in horror, shock and disbelief on Wednesday as a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters launched an assault on American democracy by invading the Capitol building, the seat of US representative government.
One can be sure that Trump was looking on with glee. This was clear when he failed to condemn or call an end to what a past Republican president, George W. Bush, called an insurrection. It was Trump himself who had incited the riot. It was the cult of personality and the conspiracy theories that he fuelled which lay behind that mad moment of anarchy.
It is now beyond doubt that the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, in the words of one White House television correspondent, is “out of his mind”. Whether the diagnosis is pathological narcissism or demagogic authoritarianism matters little. Americans are admitting, in greater numbers than ever, that, in 2016, they elected a president who was not only utterly unfit for office but, because of his mental state, is now doing severe damage to his own country.
Something has gone horribly wrong with America’s vaunted democracy.
Trump has caused a serious problem not only for the US but for the free world – the free world well and truly lost its leader on Wednesday afternoon. By the evening, however, it may have started to get it back.
When the people’s representatives stood back up on the floor and forged ahead with the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, they were damned if a raving horde of rioters was going to tear down their sacred democratic traditions. America had looked over the brink and seemed to have pulled back from it, at least for now.
On Wednesday, the world witnessed the ugliest side of the US but also caught a glimpse of its beauty. It saw ignorance and intolerance run amok. And then it saw a firm repudiation of that by its lawmakers.
The question is: is this the end of something or the beginning? US allies will now be waiting anxiously to see how America confronts the very real threats to its democracy.
They will be watching closely how it will remove the immediate danger to the country. And, then, how it will hold accountable the man who represents that danger, aided and abetted by those sucked into his thirst for power; how it will tackle the outrageous conspiracy theories that have infected the internet at his bidding; how it will close some of the perilous divisions that have ripped US politics and society apart.
The whole episode has demonstrated that, ultimately, whether democracy serves citizens or is usurped by purely personal ambition depends on the integrity of the men and women appointed to positions of power.
But, as we have just seen, systems count too. Checks and balances work. America’s democracy has so far prevailed not only because its institutions, like the courts, have held fast to their values but because the mechanisms in place allowed them to do so.
Free countries everywhere need to take this episode as a cautionary tale and strengthen their democratic institutions sufficiently to withstand any future assaults by aspiring autocrats.
They must also reflect on how they might use their education systems to give their people the tools to recognise truth and reject untruths.
Let January 6 become historic not for the damage it has done to the ideals of liberty but for the start of an effort to strengthen them. Trust in democracy depends on it.
That’s for the long term. For the next fortnight, until Joe Biden takes over, the US needs to make sure Trump stops wreaking destruction.