Following the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack in 2021, we as a nation should reflect on the normalization of absolute and radical power in our government and question how this happened.
When the founders created the Constitution, it was meant to be a system that acts like a series of locked gears, each one moving but keeping the others in check. The question is, why has this stopped working?
A breakthrough event was when President Donald Trump gave a speech to his followers on January 6, in which he rallied supporters who stormed the Capitol in a violent attack that threatened the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. This was following Trump’s 2020 election loss, where he spread that he was cheated by Biden and the Democratic party in which they stole the election, which ultimately led to uncertainty and anger in Trump’s followers, according to Britannica.
According to Britannica, the attacks on January 6 caused $1.5 million in damages and many people were injured. The result of this attack was the House of Representatives voting to impeach Trump, but the Senate later failed to find him guilty in a two-thirds vote. We at The Tower believe that this behavior should not be supported or ignored. This sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
Trump is also a convicted felon, and the first president with felony charges, according to CBC News. And while there is nothing in the law that declares someone cannot lead the nation because of convictions, we at The Tower believe that a convicted felon as a president, morally, is unsuitable. With 34 felony counts, Trump makes history, and not the good kind.
Trump isn’t the only president with questionable moral decisions. According to a 2023 poll completed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, 35 percent of Americans believe President Biden acted illegally in his son’s business dealings and 33 percent say his actions are unethical. When Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, was facing sentencing for two criminal charges, Joe Biden pardoned him at the end of his presidential term, despite stating he would not issue a pardon for his son. According to the BBC, Biden claimed his son was “selectively and unfairly, prosecuted” and that the whole thing was “a miscarriage of justice”.
Americans may empathize with a parent’s concern for their child, but the question is why was he claiming it was the justice system’s fault? We have seen twice now how leaders have shared false facts in order to sway followers to further strengthen hate for the opposing party, something we at The Tower believe shouldn’t happen.
In early December, the White House X account posted a video of several clips of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people. The video uses Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Juno” in the background to make it seem to the audience a funny and lighthearted matter. We at The Tower believe this behavior is completely inappropriate from our country’s leadership, and so does Carpenter as she retaliated in a tweet saying it “is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
This isn’t the end of the madness. Over the past few years this is all we have known as Americans: greed, selfishness and misuse of power. But it doesn’t have to always be this way. We at The Tower urge Americans to take a different approach to disagreeing with others and help end the radicalization of leaders who should be protecting our freedoms, not diminishing them.