TOPLINE
One of the big questions to arise from the Capitol storming on Wednesday by hordes of President Donald Trump followers is if the same could happen in Finland and other European capitals.
The dust from the Capitol building’s storming by Trump hordes is still settling on a political landscape that appears threatening.
Whatever your view of why and what happened on January 6 will be remembered as one of the worst days of US history. It also serves as a warning to us in Europe.
The Washington Post published a relevant story about that day of infamy headlined, “The end of American exceptionalism.”
KEY BACKGROUND AND QUESTIONS
- Four Trump thugs and terrorists died. One of these is a police officer, Brian Sicknick, 42, who was killed in the line of duty by the enraged crowd,
- The hordes were encouraged to go to the Capitol to stop the electoral college’s voting, which confirmed Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
- The storming of the Capitol building was planned for weeks on social media and different websites. Even so, law enforcement was caught with their pants down,
- The action of the Capitol police raises a lot of questions. Why did some of them open the gates to the hordes, and why did some of them appear in selfies with these domestic terrorists?
- Is there complicity on a higher level, and was the assault on US democracy a coup attempt?
THREAT TO DEMOCRACY IN FINLAND
In Finland, we have experienced the rise of a radical right populist party, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*. The party under its leader Jussi Halla-aho has veered further to the right.
In one of many tweets showing support for Trump, Halla-aho, in a tweet below, claims that the outgoing US president is the best thing to happen to the United States and the Western world.
The love affair between the PS and autocratic rulers who shun democracy is nothing new. Even after the assault on the Capitol building on Wednesday, there is an eerie silence of complicity among the party.
Trump’s actions of inciting sedition and then washing his hands of his complicity reveal what a coward he is. He leads from behind and then hides, as the quote below shows.
NAMING AND SHAMING THE CULPRITS AND ENABLERS
Ever since the PS’ historic victory in the 2011 parliamentary election, Finland has been held hostage to their Islamophobic-and-populist-far-right rhetoric. In many respects, it appears as a cat-and-mouse game where the mouse always outsmarts the cat.
The cat has the power to catch the mouse, but for some reason and playing dumb and half-blind, it wants the mouse to live.
If I were especially critical, I’d claim that the cat wants the mouse to live because the mouse’s ideology appeals to the cat. A less critical view would be ignorance. The mouse does not know the destruction that the mouse can wreak on it.
Following the PS closely before and after the parliamentary election of 2011, I stated back then that the PS is the biggest threat to our Nordic democracy.
Below, is a comment by Time magazine about the 2011 election.
Even if over 74 million people (46.9%) voted for Trump in the November 3 election, the percentage is lower in Finland for the PS or 17.5% in the last parliamentary election. The Finnish democratic system works in such a way that no party can get over 50% of the votes but is obliged to compromise.
With the help of education and our democratic institutions’ staunch defense, we can thwart the alt-right and far-right threat to our country.
We need more leadership and a clearer voice to show the way to expose the culprits and their enablers who are bent on subverting our Nordic welfare state.
