EDITORIAL - The US Capitol riot: A year hence

Today may not be of significance to most Filipinos, but the world will remember it as the first-year anniversary of what can be considered one of the most shameful chapters in US history.

Today a year ago, a crowd egged on by then US President Donald Trump tried to stop the counting of the Electoral College votes. The overall objective was obvious and chilling; to somehow force a second Trump term.

It was as colorful as it was disturbing, who can forget the man in the horned bison hat who stood at the speaker’s podium, the flag-carrying patriot who roamed the halls, the man who put his feet up at his congresswoman’s desk, and the others dressed who broke into the building dressed in full military gear as if they were part of some black ops operation?

Considering how the brazen and violent act was --the US Capitol Building was broken into and vandalized while legislators on both sides were sent scurrying for safety-- many of us thought the hammer of justice would come crashing down quickly on those who dared to try and subvert one of their most hallowed traditions.

But a year hence it seems there is still a lot of accounting to be made.

Yes, some 700 people have been charged in connection with storming the Capitol Building, but those with the perceived greatest responsibility --those who called for the action to be taken, or those who

had the power to stop it but looked the other way-- have yet to be brought to answer for their part in the what can rightfully be called a coup or even a terrorist act.

In fact, some of them still continue to enjoy a position of influence in what is considered America’s oldest political party, even though some of their own colleagues were being targeted by the mob for hanging.

The ploy of those in the Republican Party also becomes obvious; they are hoping to delay making those answerable answerable in the hopes of making enough people forget enough about what happened that day.

Unless the US brings to justice those who called for this travesty to happen or didn’t stop it when they had the power to, there will always be the chance that that incident could happen again. And who knows? Maybe this time they might even be able to pull it off.