https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/opinions/battle-against-anti-democratic-extremism-kasparov/index.html
I've followed Kasparov while he was winning the chess championships around the world and then agreed to compete against the newest AI machines. He's a very astute observer of human behavior and (dis)abilities.
This battle against anti-democratic extremism didn't end when a right-wing mob invaded the United States Capitol and five people died, including one police officer. It didn't end when Twitter and other social media platforms finally muzzled President Donald Trump -- although that was a heavier blow in this fight than most. And it won't end when Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20.
Beating Trump was an essential step, of course. Four years of his thuggery and demagoguery were enough to bring American democracy to its knees. Four more might have finished it off. Had fewer than 45,000 votes across three key states gone the other way on Election Day, we'd be plunging toward authoritarian rule, and discussing which of Trump's children would take over in 2024.
Narrowly dodging that metaphorical bullet was no protection against the threat of real bullets, as the attack on the Capitol proved. And there will be more violence, especially if the Capitol perpetrators and those who incited them -- starting with the President -- are not held accountable.
The correct response is the dispassionate application of the law. Not political persecution, but nor politically motivated leniency, either. We don't have to choose between unity and justice. Avoiding doing the right thing will only prolong the crisis and give aid and comfort to enemies of the state and of the peace. Our Founding Fathers failed to resolve the historical challenge of slavery, passing a bloody Civil War on to future generations. Despite Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Reconstruction allowed the South a "defeat with honor," decades of Jim Crow, and the pernicious Lost Cause mythology that persists today.
Consider the repugnant image of a Trumpist Capitol invader carrying a Confederate flag in a building that Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson only dreamed of conquering. No new mythology should be allowed to sprout from this vile transgression. The worst result would be letting the mutineers off the hook -- and this includes the elected officials who encouraged them, like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and especially President Trump. That they, and scores of other Republicans, continued to attack the integrity of the election even now is beyond the pale.
The perpetrators won't become heroes or martyrs if the process of justice is not unduly politicized. It would be a blunder for the left to turn a clear case of criminal justice into a battleground for racial justice, which would help the Trumpist Republicans twist their illegal insurrection into the culture war they crave. White supremacy is a terrible evil of American history, and Trump and his followers' traffic in it is repugnant, but we should not overburden a clear-cut criminal proceeding with the cleansing of sins.
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