You’ve heard the saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same?” This saying came to my mind as I watched the Democratic Congressional members commemorate Jan. 6, 2021’s insurrection at the United States Capitol.

After the Civil War, we went through the Reconstruction Era, when it looked like we were headed toward justice and liberty for all. But after 14 short years, southern politicians enacted Jim Crow Laws that made segregation legal. These laws stayed in place for more than 80 years until the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act were passed. In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president and the gains of the Civil Rights Movement began to be reversed. In 2008, the country elected Barack Obama, and many in white America, ’bout loss their mind. President Obama’s election was the catalyst that ushered in the white supremacy doctrine of Donald Trump.

There are two Americas, the one which fights to protect democracy, and showed up to remember those who fought off the insurgents who were sent by Donald Trump to stop the certification of the 2020 election; and the other America, which will do anything to stay in power.

Chairman of the January 6th Select Committee Benny Thompson likened what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, to the domestic terrorism he experienced in his home state of Mississippi as a Black man fighting for the right to vote. Churches were burned, homes were bombed, men, women, and children were hosed, beaten, jailed, and murdered. Then and now those terrorist didn’t believe they were breaking the law, but simply preserving their way of life.

After all, on Jan. 6, Trump said, “Our country has been under siege for a long time, far longer than this four-year period. … You’re the real people. You’re the people that built this nation. … And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

In a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, one out of three Americans stated that they believe violence against the government can at times be justified. This viewpoint was higher among men, young adults, and those with college degrees. White Americans believed violence could be justified at 40%, compared to 18% for Black Americans. Broken down by political parties, Republicans were 40%, Independents 41%, and Democrats were 23% in justifying using violence against the government.

Caroline Mimbs Nyce published an article in the Atlantic Daily called, “January 6 was Practice.” She broke down the makeup of the people who attacked the Capitol. The average age was 41.8, and more than half held white collar jobs or owned their own business. The majority had no ties to extremist groups (i.e., Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters Militia).

Nyce wrote that the common denominator was — in every state these insurgents came from — the White share of the population was in decline. For every one-point drop in a county’s percentage of non-Hispanic Whites from 2015–2019, the likelihood someone from that county was part of the insurrection, increased by 25 percent.

Fear of losing power is as great a motivation today as it was after Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement. It’s that fear that allows for a relic like the Electoral College to exist — where 13 southern states control almost 50% of the vote for president. It’s this fear that keeps the filibuster policy alive that forces a 60-vote threshold to get most bills passed in the Senate, where 50 Republican senators received 75 million less votes than the 50 Democratic senators. It’s why right-wing media continues to feed lies to their under-informed viewership.

Everyday ordinary people must standup and demand better. If we lose our democracy, we are destined to live under tyranny.