Looking from outside the current hellhole that is the US, I can’t help think about how the country will ever recover. My main conclusion is there has to be a real reckoning, where there are real consequences for the people who have broken the laws, and who have tried to kill democracy in the US.
This was something which should have been done already after the first Trump term, but unfortunately Biden and his administration were not the right people for this. They thought that they could make the US move on, and more or less forget Trump, and instead it created the opportunity for Trump to return and behave even worse.
The current US administration, and the people around it, have broken numerous laws, and they need to be hold accountable for that. But on top of that, a lot of people have enabled them to do so, especially some of the members of the Supreme Court. These need to be removed from their positions of power – through firings or impeachments, depending on their job.
On top of this, there should be something similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the Apartheid in South Africa, allowing the victims of the Trump administrations to speak out and tell their stories. It would also allow lower ranking officials to explain what they were ordered to do, and tell who ordered it.
I have little hope that Trump will ever go to jail, but several of his cohort, including his children and their spouses are deeply involved in criminal behavior, and should be possible to prosecute. As is Supreme Court Justice Thomas, who clearly has accepted bribes, and who in most other countries would not only be fired, but behind bars.
As part of the whole cleanup, it is also important to take a hard look at the laws, and tighten them, so future rogue presidents can’t break them with the help of a deeply partisan Supreme Court.
The reckoning should have come after the American Civil War.
It was a grave mistake not to have put to the sword, or at least locked up for life, every last Confederate soldier (not just the officers; they talked about terrible things, but the soldiers did them, which is a whole ‘nother level of wrong) and every last former slave-keeper, and retain no less harsh penalties for any display of the Confederate flag.
You have not only to cut out all the rotten wood, but also to be sure not to burn it on an open bonfire close anything else that might get infected by intact fungal spores carried on the updraught (cf. the UK foot-and-mouth disease crisis of 2001, which was spread by exactly such tactics and which only became contained again when infected carcases began to be disposed of by burial instead).
I completely agree, and it is important that something similar doesn’t happen this time