Capitol Chaos a Sign of Declining Trust in America’s Institutions

After the chaos at the Capitol Building abated, a handful of political commentators pointed out that the mob violence is a reflection of how numerous Americans are feeling ostracized and have lost faith not only in government, but in news media, social media monopolies and the liberal elites.

A great example is the comments made by Anderson Cooper on his CNN program. He said, “Look at them, they’re high-fiving each other for this deplorable display of completely unpatriotic, completely against law and order, completely unconstitutional behavior, it’s stunning.”

Every sensible person should be able to agree with his statement—however, Cooper continued.

He said, “And they’re going to go back to the Olive Garden and to the Holiday Inn they’re staying at, or the Garden Marriott, and they’re going to have some drinks and talk about the great day they had in Washington. They stood up for nothing other than mayhem.”

The comments have been called “snobbish” from a privileged descendent of the Vanderbilt family.

Does Cooper not realize that his backhanded comments about “Olive Garden” and “Holiday Inn” are part of the reason why these men and women felt so angry? That continuing to mock their lives will not solve this political divisiveness but increase it. 

There’s no doubt that the media has a considerable bias, especially against conservatives and President Donald Trump. While it is important to call out politicians for wrongdoing, the nonstop negative coverage about every decision the administration makes and comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler on a fairly regular basis is not reporting or journalism. It has created an atmosphere of distrust.

For example, if the media could be trusted to report the facts, not opinions or a liberal spin, would this chaos have happened? Maybe, but maybe not.

The lack of trust in election reporting is the failure of the media. Instead of remaining impartial observers who report merely the facts, journalists have taken on the role of cultural and political narrators and activists.

This can be seen in how journalists portrayed these Trump supporters as vandals, looters and rioters, which they were, but yet spent most of the summer sympathizing with those who showed up to demonstrate for Black Lives Matter and calling nearly every gathering “peaceful” despite equally violent displays. A great example of that was a headline during a broadcast from a CNN reporter in Kenosha, Wisconsin that read “Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting” while the city burns behind him. The hypocrisy is difficult to ignore.

The same goes for social media. Several platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, have temporarily banned President Trump from their sites for his comments about election fraud that contributed to this week’s violence.

Throughout the last four years, these social media companies have repeatedly targeted Trump’s pages and other conservatives by censoring information under the guise of “fact-checking,” but not doing the same to his detractors or liberals.

The decision to ban his page will only cement to his supporters that these institutions are also corrupt, untrustworthy and are actively working to censor the “truth,” whatever they believe that to be.

There’s no doubt, analysts and political commentators will endlessly discuss and debate what happened at the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 for years or even decades to come, but all Americans can agree that yesterday was a dark day in the history of the country and a sign that trust in our government and media is fading.

The only way that this can be addressed is for Americans to turn to God, reach across the aisle and focus more on what unites us rather than what divides us.

Photo from Leah Millis/REUTERS