Opinion: The Fringe Of America’s Fabric

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A U.S. flag flies outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 7.

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Can The Forces Unleashed By Trump’s Big Election Lie Be Undone?

A few years later, when I covered violent anti-Muslim and anti-mixed-ethnic Serb para-militaries during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo — a movement that began with vast, public lies and bigotry — I told myself how fortunate we were in the United States. We had white supremacists who committed terrible crimes. But they seemed to many, including me, a small, squalid fringe on the vast tapestry of America.

A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll came out Friday, conducted after last week’s violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Fifty-eight percent of those asked say President Trump is to blame for the attack. But eight in 10 of those who consider themselves Republicans don’t, and don’t accept that the results of the 2020 election were accurate, despite certifications in all states and no evidence of fraud.

That fringe is woven into the fabric of America. We’ve just witnessed four years of so many lies, pardons for brutality, promotion of racism, and hateful, overheated language from the highest levels of our government. But an election has been held under challenging circumstances. The majority of Americans voted for something else. And on Wednesday, we will inaugurate a democratically elected president, as always.