About a year ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, chaos and havoc wreaked Washington, D.C., when around 2,500 angry protestors stormed the Capitol protesting the results of the presidential election. 

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Trump supporters believed that the election was rigged against the Republicans so they decided to storm the Capitol when Congress was gathered there to count the electoral votes.

Members of Congress were quickly evacuated out of the Capitol building. During their efforts to enter the building, rioters injured about 130 law enforcement workers. By the end of the event there were five deaths, three of them from natural causes and cardiovascular diseases, one a rioter shot by law enforcement and another who died of a drug overdose. 

Former President Trump told his supporters to gather in the nation’s capital to support his false claims of the election being rigged against him. In one of his speeches he said, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Law enforcement officers were abused and harmed by protestors, and several were  tazed. In one of the hearings for the Capitol riots, police officer Michael Fanone recalled that he was “electrocuted again and again with a taser.”

Law enforcement officers also faced racist insults from the protestors. One officer said that she was harrassed and called racial slurs since the rioters believed she voted for Joe Biden.

The events that unfolded a year ago in the Capitol demonstrate how polarizing our political system can be. Our two-party system has created such an unhealthy and violent divide between the Republicans and the Democrats that events like this have occurred throughout the past couple of years. 

People can barely have civilized conversations nowadays about politics without getting into a heated argument. Voters were so angry with the election results that they decided to try to overthrow the government. 

For the long-term health and prosperity of our country, the two parties have to start finding more common ground with each other and start working with each other more. If riots like this start becoming a trend in our country, down the road the United States could be in huge trouble.