20 June 2021
The True Insurrectionists
The U.S. owed much of the success of its revolution against the British empire to assistance from other countries in Europe, notably France and Holland. That support from abroad was a matter of rivalry between international political competitors in a zero-sum game of wealth creation played by nation states.
No one blames the British empire for having tried to defend its sovereignty over its colonies in North America. However, the determination of the American subjects to win their independence was steadfast, broadly shared and victorious. Like the British empire in the eighteenth century, the United States is in the process of defending itself from an effort to overthrow its political system—this time not just its control of one of its colonies, but of the entire government system.
If the definition of the Russian government is an autocratic system (as it has been since the days of the Czars), then a dissident like Alexei Navalny and his political movement may be equivalent to the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol. However, when it comes to human rights, competition between autocratic and democratic government systems is not a zero-sum game. Human rights advocates believe that everybody wins when liberal democracy is established. An autocrat like Putin or his admirer, Trump, defines victory in the game of politics as whatever favors his retention of power over the rest of society.
Therefore, the equivalency of the January 6 insurrection and demonstrations against the Putin regime can indeed be justified. Putin has virtually wiped out the supremacy of the Communist Party in Russia as an institutional check on his government. Navalny's supporters constitute resistance to that personalization of power. Trump represents the incipient disappearance of representative government and of its institutional filter in the U.S. The Capitol riot was an explosion of resentment against stubborn constitutionalism, in support of removing the guard rails on Trump's solipsistic behavior. Putin and Trump are the true insurrectionists, acting to challenge the established order.
