The United States of America has long upheld the title of “The most powerful nation in the world”, or at least we would like to think. On January 6th, 2021 the United States capital faced one the most pivotal moments in modern American history, the Insurrection. 

Before Donald Trump was even able to finish his speech, the Arkansas and Idaho state capitals began to be surrounded followed by the capitol in D.C. His speech consisted of bashing the left, and continuing to spread false information of the 2020 election being fraudulent. By the end of his speech all three buildings were surrounded with rallys gathering outside. 

Around 1pm Donald Trump urged his supporters to go to the Capitol. “And we’re going to the Capitol……Try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” Soon after his  speech Donald Trump returned to the White house, while his supporters charged the Capitol. 

Protesters began to break the windows of the Capitol building, climbing through to reach the heart of our nation. What ensued was four hours of pure terror for the members in the house inside. At 4:17pm, Donald Trump posted a video to his Twitter, addressing the attack.

“We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace.”

People were not happy.

So what has changed one year later? Not much, nothing will ever go back to “normal”, or at least the way it was before. New poll results show that 60% of Republicans believe that votes will be counted incorrectly in the 2022 midterm elections. This number tends to stay on the rise, as election officials have forward stating they have received a multitude of threats. Most if not all of these threats come from Trump supporters who still continue to believe the 2020 election results were skewed. 

In an odd turn of events, people believe that this event may have strengthened the democratic party. Democrats soon came to the conclusion that Republicans will not be willing to work with them together, and they are better off becoming more United with themselves. 

Safety soon became a high priority for our government officials. Just two weeks after the Insurrection president Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn into office. Leading up to this day the nation took more precautions than ever before. Over 25,000 National Guard members were activated to go down to D.C leading up to the event. Some were only there from January 15th-25th, while others spent months in D.C guarding the Capitol building.

With 1,800 sworn police officers and 400 civilian employees it was clear a change needed to be made to protect them. Following the Insurrection a 15% pay increase was established to D.C police offices, which helped allow the process of getting new heavy duty equipment. 

Moving forward as a nation, we all need to do better. No one is better than the person next to them, and everyone is in the same fight. Although this horrible event occurred, I think everyone can learn something from it. Hopefully in the future it’s not just the Democrats agreeing with the Democrats and the Republicans agreeing with the Republicans, but instead each other.

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Editors’ note: All opinions expressed on The Uproar are a reflection solely of the beliefs of the bylined author and not the journalism program at NASH.  We continue to welcome school-appropriate comments and guest articles.