Political expert shares insight about America’s future following protests, riots in Washington, DC
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As protests outside the nation’s Capitol Wednesday gave way to riots inside, it revealed the current divisiveness among Americans.
"What’s unusual about what happened yesterday is that so many people were involved in essentially taking over the building, that has never happened, and that is extraordinary," Carleton College Political Science Professor Steve Schier said.
"What we saw yesterday at the U.S. Capitol is symptomatic of the deep divisions in America that have been building since the 1960s," he added.
Violent protests at US Capitol: Timeline of events on morning of Jan. 7
Schier said there are deep cultural, racial, gender, ideological and geographical divisions in America.
Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. It's been a stunning day as a number of lawmakers and then the mob of protesters tried to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.[AP Photo/John Minchillo]
"It’s a simple, historical fact that the more diverse a society, the more internal conflict there will be," he shared.
He said leaders must lower the tone and citizens must open their eyes to opposing views.
"People need to get out of their information silos, talk to people who disagreed with them and understand what the differences are and see if you can build bridges. Right now, the easy thing to do is to sit with people who agree with you, ignore everyone else and think that they are morally defective, a lot of people are doing that now, and that’s no way for a citizen to operate in a democratic republic," he stated.
Schier said change won’t come easily.
"This is going to be slow, long, hard work, it’s not going to happen next year, it may not happen in the next 10 years, but if you want to move toward greater unity, you’ve got to develop a very gradual effort at the leadership level," he said.
As for utilizing the 25th amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office after the deadly day, Schier doesn’t see that happening before the inauguration, and he thinks the same for impeachment.
"Impeachment is a possibility, but that requires a House [of Representatives] hearing, the House vote, Senate hearings and a Senate vote and Senate trial, it would take months, it’s not going to be done in 13 days," he said.
Schier is guessing Trump will remain in power until the inauguration of President-elect Biden, but said that is just a guess, calling this unchartered waters.