USA: "The Storming of the Capitol – An American Trauma" – Arte is tracking down the uprising

The documentation about the events of January 6, 2021 leaves too many important questions unanswered.

Frankfurt / Washington, DC – In the collective memory of the United States, this day has probably left as deep marks as the attack on the World Trade Center a good twenty years ago: On January 6, 2021, fans of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington to prevent that Joe Biden is officially confirmed as the winner of the presidential election because the election victory was allegedly stolen.

In contrast to “9/11”, however, the conquest of the congress building is by no means perceived as a trauma by all citizens of the United States: Many people are convinced that Trump fans would have done the right thing back then; Members of the Republican Party downplay the incidents to this day.

Arte shows documentary “The Storming of the Capitol – An American Trauma”

In their fifty minute long documentary, Dagmar Gallenmüller and Gaston Saša Koren reconstruct the events of that day. In addition, your film should discuss how this could happen and how endangered American democracy actually is. The two of them answer the second question only superficially, and they do not even ask a third one: What does this have to do with us?

The show treats the events as a phenomenon confined to the US, but divisions of this kind can also be observed in Europe, most obviously in the UK since the Brexit referendum. There is a similar development in this country: The discussions about the corona pandemic and the associated measures, such as a possible vaccination requirement, are being conducted with similar severity. The rifts run right through families and have broken friendships.

+

“The storm on the Capitol” (Arte): Parallels to Corona protests in Germany

Gallenmüller and Koren, however, focus on America and this January 6th. Your film is hard work that, thanks to many smartphone videos, meticulously reconstructs the events. In this way, thanks to the explanations of a British journalist and two affected police officers, you are right in the middle of the fray, which gives the pictures a morbid fascination.

Apparently not all participants in this “storm on the Capitol” had a coup or something similar in mind, many were simply carried away by the dynamics of the events. A minority also wanted to see blood and went in search of Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. How this group would have behaved if they had actually met the Democratic spokeswoman for the House of Representatives or the Trump deputy who was insulted as a traitor: That can only be speculated.

However, the composition of the group also shows parallels to the Corona protests in Germany: Here as there, inciters of the people have taken advantage of the mood in the country. At the Corona demonstrations, good citizens run alongside right-wing extremists; there is also a violent minority.

Arte documentary “The Storm on the Capitol” makes it too easy

Of course, Gallenmüller and Koren have every right to restrict themselves to the USA, since the subject is complex enough after all; but even in this respect they make it too easy for themselves. Strictly speaking, they would have to tell the history of the country in order to fully discuss how this aggressive mood could arise in the first place.

A corresponding analysis is basically not possible without the conquest of the continent and the associated slaughter of the indigenous peoples as well as slavery and the oppression of African-Americans, which continues to this day. The fear of communism, which has been deeply rooted in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “witch hunt” since the 1950s at the latest, should also be taken into account, because this is what the defamations of the right-wing agitators aim at.

“Storming the Capitol”: Many questions remain unanswered

One historian interprets the storming of the Capitol as a reaction to the many “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020, but this template is not taken up in the commentary. Instead, the film reduces the division of the country to the usual thesis that Washington has lost contact with the “little people” and only takes into account the interests of the affluent coastal regions in the east and west. A couple presented as an example belong to the Christian fundamentalist Moon sect, the majority of whose members are Trump supporters; The evangelicals in the USA, which are far more radical in their views, are the far more influential religious community.

The important role of right-wing media, above all the TV broadcaster Fox News, is also far too little highlighted. The interspersed statements of the experts are too cloudy (“Something is fundamentally wrong in our country”) to give really substantial answers, especially to the question of what will happen to the USA if Trump runs again in 2024 and possibly win. Some of these aspects will, however, be taken up in the film “Amerika in Aufruhr” (9:05 p.m.), which will be broadcast afterwards. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)