Opinion | Storming of US Capitol: US lawmakers advocating for democracy abroad must look closer to home
- The violent attempt to overturn the results of a legal election is an attack on US democratic institutions
- Republican lawmakers who have been passionate in supporting Hong Kong democracy protesters should not in good conscience support such attacks
The US Capitol is only one part of the complex. Capitol Police also evacuated buildings around the Capitol, including the Library of Congress, where I was a fellow at the Kluge Centre before the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown.
As a scholar of US-China relations, what strikes me most is that while lawmakers condemn anti-democratic actions abroad, we failed our core institutions, those that seek to build a timeless democracy through knowledge.
When I was in residence at the library, the tunnels connecting the Capitol building and the marble-hewn collections felt like a ballast for the then metaphorically violent ideological explosions in Congress. Hill staffer friends would come across to the library for coffee to remember what the timelessness of democracy felt like.
With actual violence descending onto Capitol Hill, as I sat in my home under curfew nearby, it is clear that we were wrong to take for granted the possibility of long-term stability amid short-term chaos.
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Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol
Republican lawmakers have long been staunch supporters of the democracy movement in Hong Kong, arguing for the sanctity of the movement.
