Gen Z only remembers 9/11 through the eyes of our parents. We can only directly recall the nationalist fervor and grand unifying moment that followed in that horrible day’s wake. But last night, I asked my parents how the terrorist attack on the Capitol building compares in its immediate shock. Even my dad, who was in Manhattan on the day the towers fell, is more concerned with the brazen political violence exhibited by Drumpf and his devotees yesterday. We think of 9/11 as a turning point in the identity of the American political hegemony both domestic and abroad. But how do we frame yesterday’s monumental moment? How will we think about January 6 in 2041?
The mainstream media can throw out analogies ad nauseum: the Rubicon, the Reichstag, the October Revolution. Right-wing nut-cases will say this is Washington crossing the Delaware to Trenton. I find these analogues to be absolute; they seem to imply that the pseudo-revolution has arrived.
Soon enough, with our 24-hour news cycle, this will be a memory at arms-length. Recall that this day is the anniversary of the assassination of Iranian military general Qassem Suleimani. January 6, 2021 was the deadliest day of the raging COVID pandemic. Vaccine rollout is abysmal. We have yet to see what inauguration day has in store for us. And, in 2022, life will be relatively normal under the Obama Administration 2.0. January 6th will be a distant memory. But we cannot forget the timeline of the Weimar Republic and the foreboding analogues in our contemporary political and cultural environments.
We have Freikorps roaming streets of major cities, harassing and assaulting random civilians. We see enormous economic and political disenfranchisement among the working class; this transcends race, sexuality, gender expression, or any permutation of identity. We are entering the worst economic depression to which this country has ever bore witness. We see the proposal of a mass registry of a particular religious minority. We see concentration camps for ethnic minorities purported to be invaders. We see the assault of journalists and the journalistic enterprise.
This was the moment where a disorganized yet emphatic coup attempt showed the will and might of the quasi-Brownshirts and other proto-fascists seeking to restore the glory of a once-great and -envied empire. Hell, we had newly-sworn-in Congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL) praise Hitler before the chaos unfolded. Yet this is not the turning point where we enter the fascist regime.
This was our Beer Hall Putsch.
The Democrats have staved off the proto-fascist party from power for now. But these groups will pounce and delegitimize the power of the neoliberal party in 2022 and 2024.
But for nefarious conservative ideologues perpetuating the fascist ethos, this was a test run to see how far their wild base would go. And, oh, they went there. Now, there is to see where beyond today’s events we will behold.
Think to 2029. President Josh Hawley presides over the country, having won on a campaign of xenophobia with a sprinkling of left-wing populism policy bitten from the DSA; this tactic reminiscent of the Nazi Party platforming some policies of the SPD (but only for Aryans). Ever radicalized by the ongoing economic depression and racial strife, socialist- and anarchist-adjacent groups protest for racial or economic justice. One protest in the nation’s capital, eerily close to the Capitol building, is provoked by police, inciting riots.
Our Reichstag Fire will have arrived. And soon, the Reichstag Fire Decree shall follow.
When we are all dancing and drinking and raving and loving soon enough, do not forget this day. The rise of Hitler did not happen in 10 years. And the fall of Rome did not happen in a day.
