Washington DC, twinned with Bangul

 In an election widely seen as the most democratic in the republic's history, in spite of intimidation leading to violence at a few polling stations, a presidential challenger wins by a narrow majority. Almost immediately after the declaration, there is an insurrection believed to have been fomented by the ousted president with the aim of regaining power by force. This is the scenario in many a third-world nation in recent years, the latest example being in the Central African Republic. Conservatives in the West viewing the footage of the riots might typically use such words as "savages" or more kindly "immature", "children".

One would not expect to see almost identical footage streamed from the capital of the self-proclaimed leader of the free world. Most shocking of all was the image of guns being drawn in the chamber of the Capitol building. One shudders to think what might have occurred if Washington DC did not have the strictest gun control laws in the States. 

Questions are already being asked about the lack of preparedness by the authorities. There is a contrast between the show of force by the administration in response to peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the laissez-faire attitude to security when it was known that President Trump was encouraging civil disobedience and that his fans were going further on social media. In spite of denials by the Department of Defense, the Mayor of Washington is adamant that his request to deploy the National Guard was rejected by the administration.

Order has now been restored and the formal procedures for anointing the new president have resumed, but the world will have been looking on in astonishment. The US claim to be a beacon of democracy, to justify her military adventures on the grounds of bringing freedom and order to less fortunate parts of the globe, already shaky, will hardly be believed any more.

And what of other Western democracies which have fallen under the spell of populist leaders whose ineptitude has been exposed by the hard realities of government? Will these now go quietly when they are rejected by their people at the next election? Would London's under-funded police be able to withstand a rabble roused by the likes of Farage and Cummings?