Five years have passed since the events of January 6, 2021, when thousands of Donald Trump's supporters stormed Capitol Hill in Washington in an attempt to violently prevent the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden. Although this marked an extraordinary milestone in US history, the presence of that dramatic and grim day in the nation’s collective memory appears to be steadily fading.
On the fifth anniversary, it seems the public has almost forgotten the threat the demonstrators posed to American democracy - a democracy that in any case has been increasingly eroding since Trump returned to the White House, flooding the media discourse and public opinion with a host of other issues on the daily agenda: from the Epstein files, through the mass deportation of immigrants, the persecution of his domestic political opponents, to the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and hints regarding a future annexation of Greenland.
Nicolás Maduro protesters New York
(Video: Amir Bogen)
While Democratic members of Congress initiated discussions on the ongoing consequences of the wild attack on the legislature, the public at large appeared largely indifferent. Even in New York, which only recently elected the progressive Zohran Mamdani to lead it as mayor, no special public activity was recorded on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 trauma. Still, here and there one could identify acts of civil resistance against what they see as the MAGA attack on democracy - among them a demonstration in New York calling for the president’s arrest and reminding the public that the violent event in Washington, DC, was, in their view, not merely a deliberate disruption of the democratic process but an outright coup attempt.
“January 6th was an attempted cue,” shouted demonstrators who gathered on the sidewalks outside New York’s main public library in Midtown Manhattan. They held signs reading “Arrest Trump,” “Impeach. Convict. Remove," “Pro-Democracy, Anti-Trump,” “Trump Does Not Speak For Us,” and more. The modest, sparsely attended protest was supported by the Rise and Resist movement in cooperation with members of the TruthOverFox group, which regularly demonstrates every Tuesday outside Fox News headquarters in the city.
Most of the protesters, largely older in age, also referred to events from the previous day - the arraignment of Nicolás Maduro at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, just a few kilometers from the protest site. They labeled Trump a “war criminal” for ordering an attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its leader, and carried signs condemning the move: “No War For Oil.” Others held signs bearing the name Jeffrey Epstein, as a reminder of the high-profile affair that, in their view, Trump is trying to obscure through military adventures beyond US borders. “Release the Epstein Files,” they repeatedly chanted. Does this protest move the president himself? Probably not at all. In fact, passersby hardly paid attention either, beyond an occasional expression of support, or, alternatively, a shout of “Donald Trump, Donald Trump” from the driver of a passing truck.