While it’s definitely still possible, I’m optimistic that the US doesn’t have a history of being forcibly silenced. While we may not be great at mass‑movement or general‑strike action on a national scale, or at least we are out of practice, we’re not used to being afraid of speaking our political beliefs and I don’t see that switching overnight.
In a nation like Russia, that kind of political submission to the state was seemingly drilled into people during the Soviet Union (really, through much of recent Russian history). No one runs into the street to take cell‑phone video of Russian thug troops rounding up political foes. They know that if they speak up, they’ll be alone, isolated, and face a bad fate. But in the US, we get outside and document. We know the names of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
And consider hypothetical war support: there’s no way the political ruling class would survive if the US got into a meat‑grinder war like Russia’s in Ukraine, with millions of casualties. Vietnam almost broke the country, and there were only 58k deaths (not to belittle the number, but Russia has suffered around 1.2m in military losses in just four years).
I think Jan 6 was a wake‑up call that it’s not a joke and not crazy to think they would attempt (and could succeed with) a coup here. I 100% think Trump and co. will try again to stage a coup or fix themselves in power, but I don’t yet believe they’ll succeed.
While it’s definitely still possible, I’m optimistic that the US doesn’t have a history of being forcibly silenced. While we may not be great at mass‑movement or general‑strike action on a national scale, or at least we are out of practice, we’re not used to being afraid of speaking our political beliefs and I don’t see that switching overnight.
In a nation like Russia, that kind of political submission to the state was seemingly drilled into people during the Soviet Union (really, through much of recent Russian history). No one runs into the street to take cell‑phone video of Russian thug troops rounding up political foes. They know that if they speak up, they’ll be alone, isolated, and face a bad fate. But in the US, we get outside and document. We know the names of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
And consider hypothetical war support: there’s no way the political ruling class would survive if the US got into a meat‑grinder war like Russia’s in Ukraine, with millions of casualties. Vietnam almost broke the country, and there were only 58k deaths (not to belittle the number, but Russia has suffered around 1.2m in military losses in just four years).
I think Jan 6 was a wake‑up call that it’s not a joke and not crazy to think they would attempt (and could succeed with) a coup here. I 100% think Trump and co. will try again to stage a coup or fix themselves in power, but I don’t yet believe they’ll succeed.