OPINION: Capitol riots were wrong, but the ‘Trump GOP’ is here to stay

Congress had planned to carry out a procedure that has been entrenched in presidential politics over the past 100 years: certifying the electoral vote count. On that same day, Jan. 6, 2021, President Trump and his supporters arrived at the Capitol for the “Save America March,” but the protest against the legitimacy of the 2020 election turned into a siege on the U.S. Capitol building. This was the first time the Capitol building was overtaken in over 200 years. While the approach taken by these rioters is inadequate, there are real grievances that the right has against not only Democrats, but also many of the institutions in America, including the media and big tech.

Let’s be clear: The violence that took place in the U.S. Capitol should be condemned completely and should never occur again. According to the New York Times, five people died, including one Capitol police officer, because of the events on that day and none of those deaths should have occurred. In addition, the trespassing and vandalism that took place inside and around the Capitol building should not have been what these folks resorted to. 

At the end of the day, these events happened, and while Democrats and political commentators blame former President Trump for these events, that is simply not the case. In fact, House Democrats have already impeached Trump for the second time and the senate just this week voted to acquit the president for a second time. 

Look, I’m not going to use this piece to try to justify or defend the actions of the Capitol mob. It was wrong. However, the events of that day, as well as the challenge to the 2020 election, stem from four-plus years of lies, censorship and misrepresentation from American institutions like the media, big tech, universities and the elite political class.

From the beginning of his campaign, President Trump spearheaded a movement that would change American politics. He ran on a platform to “Make America Great Again,” and after winning the election in a shocking upset to the media and much of America, Trump enacted these proposals and so much more during his first term. According to Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight, the impact of Trump’s presidency should not be understated. 

“But I have no doubt that the effects of Trump’s presidency will ripple through American life for years, if not decades,” Malone said. “He revealed fundamental weaknesses in the way Americans consume politics, and he seemed to make everyone in America care about it.” 

While former President Trump was working for America, the media was working against America, and that is one of the biggest frustrations amongst Trump supporters. It should be inherently clear that many of the leading media sources have a left-leaning bias, but it got to a point where Trump’s presidency was crushed. Conservatives like myself feel the same way as anytime we turn on the TV or go on our phones, we hear about how Trump “did this” and how Trump “said that”. This kind of coverage was prevalent all the way until the 2020 election. And maybe it’s gotten to the point where average Americans don’t realize that the media is left-leaning because they are so used to their language of “Trump and Republicans = bad”. 

According to Rich Noyes at the Media Research Center, coverage of Trump on major broadcast networks was found to be 95 percent negative. Noyes mentioned how between June 1 and July 31, almost 650 evaluative statements of Trump were negative. 

“I’ve been studying the news media and elections for more than 35 years,” Noyes said. “Trust me—there’s never been anything like it.” 

This negative coverage is one of the biggest issues among the right and is why many have adopted the term “Fake News”. The fact is that if you keep poking the bear (or really elephant) enough times, then conservatives will not put up with it anymore. And I agree, conservatives must fight back against the mainstream media’s continuous negative coverage …  but not by the means taken on Jan. 6. 

Another area where conservatives must fight back is against Big Tech. Throughout the Trump presidency, technology platforms and social media networks have constantly censored or banned prominent conservative voices for unjustified reasons. Because around 5,000 people decided to storm the Capitol, it does not mean that Twitter should permanently ban a voice for almost 75 million Americans, in President Trump. Twitter and the rest of Big Tech do not realize these 75 million voices aren’t going anywhere. A common solution amongst conservatives is using entrepreneurship to create their own platform akin to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. That’s exactly what happened with Parler, a free-speech alternative to Twitter. But when left-wing activists called on Google, Amazon and Apple to remove Parler from their app stores and networks, they did just that, with the digital giants claiming that service to Parler was removed due to violations of usage rules and a failure to adequately police user posts that routinely called for violence and crime. 

“Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, and Amazon are insulated from meaningful competition, and when a competitor like Parler does show up, the companies act collectively to squash them,” Will Chamberlain said in the New York Post. 

Going back to the impacts of President Trump, the general ideology that his supporters describe themselves as is “America First”. That ideology represents the huge chunk of Trump’s base. Specifically, America First voters believe in restricting immigration, ending foreign wars, protectionist/”fair” trade, and cracking down on big tech. In addition, while there is no way to justify their actions, many of the folks who stormed the Capitol are America First supporters; the easiest identifier of them are the mostly blue “AF” flags, and there were quite a few of them if you look closely at the images.

However, the common link among America First and the rest of the Trump base is a hatred of DC “swamp rats”, (career, self-serving politicians) including many Republicans. Take Liz Cheney for example. Although she is the third most powerful Republican in Congress, she voted to impeach Trump for the Capitol attack, and is not popular among conservatives. In fact, according to FiveThirtyEight, she has a 44 to 16 percent, unfavorable-favorable rating among Republicans. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the senate is getting that same feeling from voters as he has a 47 to 34 unfavorable-favorable rating due to his compliance with the Democrats’ impeachment and blaming Trump for the Capitol attacks. 

The lesson for Republicans in office: Trumpism is here to stay. Whether or not he runs for office in 2024, the Trump and America First platform will remain the most popular aspect of the Republican party and will be the ideology of voters for decades to come. This will be the case no matter what elected and/or anti-Trump Republicans say or want. The Trump ideology must be fought for or otherwise it will get squashed; at the same, violence must not be resorted to under any circumstances. 

The conservative movement and the current Republican party must rise above violence and take every legal and constitutional avenue to fight for our beliefs. That way, once we defeat Big Tech and will be able to get our platform more widespread. The Trump ideology will be seen by the American people as the way to go. It’s inevitable.