Yesterday was a horrifying day. The president of South Korea declared martial law and it looked like yet another theater of major conflict was going to open up in the world, besides Syria, Gaza and Ukraine — not to mention the circus that the United States is starting up again in January. But the guardrails of democracy held. Will ours, if faced with the same scenario?
SIX HOURS OF CHAOS: If you had “attempted dictatorial coup in South Korea” left on your 2024 bingo card, congratulations. Less than 24 hours ago, President Yoon Suk Yoel took to the airwaves for an unexpected announcement declaring martial law in the country. He accused the political opposition, which controls the parliament, of sympathizing with North Korea. Lawmakers responded swiftly, converging on parliament overnight—climbing walls and clashing with troops to do so—and voting 190-0 to overturn Yoon’s declaration as protests swirled outside. Just six hours after his announcement, Yoon backed off, and now appears utterly isolated: His own party has largely abandoned him, his entire cabinet has offered to resign, impeachment seems likely, and even a charge of treason is on the table.
We’re the farthest thing from expert east Asia analysts, so we won’t try to draw sweeping conclusions from any of this. But we know this: If you’re gonna play the martial law card, you gotta fully commit! More seriously, this serves a reminder: Democracy is a fragile thing, and you can’t know how strong its institutions are until they’re tested. We’ve been tested. And, sadly, our Congress didn’t unanimously smack down a president who attempted a coup. Instead, his party gave him a pass and rallied right back to his side.
That is why we’re here. The GOP had two impeachments, two opportunities to remove this monster from our midst, but they passed on it. Why? So that precisely this moment in history could occur, so that the monster could hopefully resurrect and return to power. Power over principles is the watchword here for today’s Republican party.
The Republican party under Trump is a warped and twisted thing. It no longer resembles the party of Eisenhower, Reagan, not even Nixon, although in terms of corruption, that would certainly be the closest fit.
Trump said he would “be a dictator — but only for one day.” Who knows what he might do? Maybe he’ll decide to sign an executive order saying that he’s dictator for life and throw us into immediate constitutional challenge. It’s not beyond consideration. Not for a man who is nominating the likes of Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel for top government posts for which none of them are even remotely qualified. Trump is deranged and the more deranged he is, evidently the more loved he is by his cult and by the GOP.
We have never seen anything remotely like this and let us hope that, assuming we can survive this period in our history, intact as a democratic republic, and a constitutional democracy and a representative democracy, that we will never see this level of basic threat again.
Evidently the citizens of South Korea wouldn’t have stood by for January 6th judging by their reaction.
But, of course, they don’t have Fox Noise and the rest of the RWNJ media at them 24/7, and perhaps more importantly the example of North Korea on their border.