By Professor Ronald W. Pruessen, University of Toronto — The Conversation Canada — 7 January 2021
Donald Trump should be seen as the avatar of American attitudes and behavioural predispositions, both widespread and deeply rooted. The Capitol raid exposed the ‘lines of cleavage’ that were predetermined by American society’s structure: a nation that has celebrated liberty and equality while systematically denying those values to the true majority. From the earliest days of the republic, millions of slaves were terrorized and abused beyond imagination; tens of thousands of Indigenous people were robbed of land, culture, autonomy and life. “Jim Crow” laws, the “Southern Strategy,” Chinese exclusion acts, and the persistent treatment of women as second-class citizens are all part of the same pattern of pathology. This is not a problem unique to the United States, but its historic character warrants more attention than Trump’s talent for monopolizing the spotlight often allows.