The The Capitol mobs instigated by the president and his associates caused the United States an unfathomable international embarrassment that it doubled as a gift to its opponents – one they were too eager to exploit. While groups of participants at the rally lurked in the halls of Congress, and shortly after the violence was suppressed by law enforcement, the chattering classes concluded that the day’s events undermined the US’s global leadership.
Foreign Affairs Council President Richard Haass wrote on Twitter that it will be a long time before Washington can “lecture others that they are not stable enough to have nuclear weapons”. O Washington PostKaren Attiah from Karen Attiah was similarly pessimistic, and her post reflected what now appears to be the prevalent thinking among opinion leaders: “When the President of Zimbabwe is telling the United States to leave with moralizations about democracy for other countries, you know that [sic] A package. “
These observers and others are right to deplore the damage it does to efforts to promote democracy in the United States and the gift it has been for foreign authoritarian regimes. Still, the precise extent of this damage has yet to be seen. It depends on how – and if – Americans will remedy the evils caused by the chaos and face the political forces and the disinformation epidemic that made it possible. In the short term, however, these efforts must be accompanied by a vigorous refutation of foreign authoritarian efforts to exploit the moment.
After the invasion of the Capitol, there was an obvious difference between international responses in good faith and those that sought to turn the crisis into weapons for anti-democratic purposes. The US allies responded with a mixture of shock, expressions of confidence in American institutions and condemnation of the president. They assessed American democracy not by the depths it plunged into this election season, but by the criterion of the example that the United States has historically set.
French President Emmanuel Macron recorded a short video speech: “What happened today in Washington, DC is definitely not America.” “Democracy in the United States must be maintained – and it will be,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Boris Johnson, from the United Kingdom, considered it “vital that there is a peaceful and orderly transition”, and the government of Japan said in a statement that it “hopes” that there will be one. Some were more pointed. Former European Council President Donald Tusk warned that “there are trumps everywhere”, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made a call: “Dear @realDonaldTrump, recognize @joebiden as the next president today.”
The difference between the world’s democrats and their autocrats could not be more stark. Just take the tweet mentioned by Attiah, posted by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa:
Last year, President Trump extended painful economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, citing concerns about the country’s democracy.
Yesterday’s events showed that the United States has no moral right to punish another nation on the pretext of defending democracy. Those sanctions must end.
He then congratulated Joe Biden on his victory and offered the friendship of the people of Zimbabwe. Of course, the United States still has the moral authority to encourage respect for human rights in the country. Mnangagwa, who displaced Robert Mugabe in a coup d’état in 2017, has a brutal record that matches that of the infamous dictator: the country’s security forces still routinely use indiscriminate force against innocent protesters, who arbitrarily arrest, torture and rape. O New York Times reported last year that his “opponents now fear that he is more dangerous than his predecessor”.
What about US opponents with the most global influence? While the statements from Beijing, Moscow and other capitals seem to illustrate tensions in the democratic tradition of the United States, the primary reaction to these messages should be ridiculous, if they receive attention. And they certainly do not advertise capable of convincing those who have not already taken for granted what these governments have to say.
Twitter account The Global Times, a Chinese state tabloid, used the incident to draw an equivalence between the Washington riot and the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, comparing photos of the Washington uprising with those of the occupation of the Hong Kong legislature by protesters in 2019. according to the regime’s propagandists, if figures like Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pompeo condemn the disturbances, they should also condemn the pro-democracy movement (which the Chinese Communist Party falsely tarnishes with separatist, terrorist and violent intentions). An article in the WG quotes Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying: “Many Chinese Internet users are wondering why some politicians and the media in the US have reacted so differently to a similar situation.”
Only they were not remotely similar situations. Hong Kong Democrats are facing an aspiring totalitarian regime that is swallowing all the democratic practices the city has been promised. It is worth declaring this simple truth, particularly after this week’s police raids in Hong Kong, which involved more than 50 pro-democracy politicians for their participation in the primaries for the legislative elections. Capitol rioters tried to subvert a legitimate electoral result that resisted countless legal challenges by means that defied the law.
Other examples abound. The Venezuelan government’s statement states that “with this unfortunate episode, the United States is experiencing what it has generated in other countries”. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote that, despite all of Trump’s damaging actions, he “has done a lot worse for our people – and others for the past 4 years”, referring to the sanctions campaign aimed at the Tehran’s support for terrorism and nuclear aspirations. Russia’s ambassador to the UN happily compared the conquest of the Capitol with Maidan’s protests in Ukraine, which toppled Viktor Yanukovych, the strong man supported by the Kremlin. It goes without saying that all of these are regimes that routinely repress peaceful demonstrations and then retaliate against those who seek justice. The current turmoil gives them an easy message to convey – but it remains fundamentally ridiculous.
Therefore, the immediate reaction must be to discredit foreign propaganda and expose the anti-democratic motives behind it. However, that alone will not be enough. Messages to an international audience to protest measures to punish human rights violators are less likely to influence people than similar messages aimed at domestic consumption, which can undermine the efforts of pro-democracy forces in these countries. The president’s demeanor and the Capitol mobs gave them a news cycle that prevented discussion of everything from Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong to Iran’s obstruction in the investigation of the civilian plane shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Tehran last year .
There is little discussion that this attack on the peaceful transfer of power appears to have serious consequences for America’s global credibility, unless the downward spiral narrows.