And democracy still prevailed

11:30 AM. Wednesday. January 6, 2021

Reverend Warnock and John Ossoff had made history by becoming the first two blue senators of Georgia after 20 years. America was making strides. Yet.

Those of us working from home had zoom calls cut short. Group chats with friends buzzed. A mob of Trump supporters had managed to storm the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election. I refreshed my NY Times app three times, hoping the story would eventually be retracted or the headline would be modified.

I opened the story and saw images of congress members running out of the main chambers. Kneeling below seats, just as I had practiced in lockdowns at school. It was a strange seeing this play out with our lawmakers. The fear in their faces, much like the children of Sandy Hook, Parkland, or Columbine.

It went on. No arrests. No mention of tear gas. Absolutely nothing like this past summer’s peaceful protest for civil rights, in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and many more. Today America revealed which skin color can and cannot protest. These protestors had guns and defaced federal government buildings, but the law enforcement of our nation turned a blind eye and took too long to act.

The next several hours were uncertain. Would they succeed in “stopping the steal”?Congress was under lockdown. I had mentally prepared myself for a prominent figure to pass.

I thought of the stories that my first generation immigrant parents told me about. Voter intimidation. Election fraud. Civil unrest. It was troubling that many of the discomforts and uncertainty of life in India were cropping up in the “developed” nation. What does it say about the strength of our democracy? Will weaknesses in our democratic institutions inspire future global events?

After hours, they managed to secure the Capitol building. Congress met up again to certify the election. The mob would not be successful in eradicating one of America’s democratic traditions.

While the Electoral College system is flawed, the processes that our founding fathers put in place have lasted for centuries. The nation is uncertain about what is next, yet today the mob did not succeed. We have a lot of work ahead for objectively fair elections. For now, I take solace in knowing that enough people rose to the occasion of preserving democracy.