By Xin Ping
Editor's note: Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs who writes regularly for CGTN, Xinhua, and Global Times. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
The U.S. has been accustomed to judging other countries, but as the House select committee's investigation into the January 6 Capitol Riot unfolds, it is the American democracy that has been put in the dock this time. The committee's hearings, intended to stimulate a resurrection of American democracy, have so far descended into a soap opera, a befitting title of which would be "A Documentary of American Democrazy."
For spectators, it is simply overwhelming to behold how fanatic party rivalry has reduced the investigation to a political farce. The legitimacy of the committee is in question from the very beginning, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke from tradition by blocking two GOP nominees and seating staunchly anti-Trump Republicans instead.
With few balanced, opposing views from the testimony, the hearings seem to be more about filtering evidence to prove "why the Democrats should stay in power" than "what the truth of January 6 is." Having been rather quiet for a whole year, the committee began televising hearings at a time when Americans face record-high gas prices and the most serious inflation since 1981 with Joe Biden's approval rating slumping to 36 percent and midterm elections only months ahead. Thus Donald Trump was not without supporters when he called the inquiry a "kangaroo court."
Republicans are no less ferocious predators in this carnival of insanity. For them, it is not important to respond to the evidence pointing to a fake electors scheme concocted by Trump allies, or the testimony by former Justice Department officials of being pressed by Trump to declare the 2020 presidential election corrupt. Instead, they have two tasks only: to label Republicans testifying at the hearings as RINOs (Republicans in name only), and to convince Americans that every finding from the investigation is fake news.
Commentators have argued that had the Watergate hearings taken place today, Nixon would not have left office because he could have counted on the 34 senators of his party to stand by him, regardless of the evidence. That is not so much a mockery of the past as a lamentable prediction of the future: with the hearings still ongoing, nearly 5,000 Texas GOP delegates voted to pass a resolution claiming Biden's 2020 election victory was illegitimate, and called on fellow Republicans "to ensure election integrity" during the midterms in November.
Behind every tedious fight that fuels partisan hostility and tears American society further apart, there are "political animals" at the center who are keen to prosper from chaos and dance on the grave of the credibility of American political institutions. A typical example is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed "Grim Reaper." Profiting from his fund-raising power, McConnell has built up his core team by throwing tens of millions of dollars to "anoint" favored Senate candidates. Vowing to "drop a boulder" on whoever throws a stone at them, the so-called Team Mitch has "dismantled the Senate brick by brick," according to Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, leaving the institution "deteriorated to the point where there is no debate whatsoever." After the Capitol riot, McConnell quickly condemned Trump's conduct, yet later refused to vote him guilty in the impeachment trial. What was at work was not fact or conscience, but the flux of power dynamics inside the party.
All this drama around the hearings and American politics as a whole is eroding people's trust in and patience with those who are supposed to represent them. An NPR/Ipsos poll in early 2022 found 64% of Americans believe democracy in the U.S. is "in crisis and at risk of failing." For the second and third hearings of the committee in June, only 11 percent watched in full and 28 percent saw "some." It is more likely that the series would culminate in a further divided America, rather than any viable remedy for American democracy.
The degradation of American political culture and its democratic process should come as no surprise, as its politicians care only about personal gains rather than the interests of their country and people, and exploit every opportunity to shift the blame onto their opponents for domestic problems, be it the economy, minority rights, gun violence or immigration.
Now, the latest episodes of the hearings have been delayed into July; whether or not because of "very poor television ratings" as Trump mocked, we don't know. But how many more soap operas of "democrazy" is the U.S. able to endure in the future?
