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Analyst: Parties need to come together to avoid repeat of US Capitol riot

3 years 2 months 2 weeks ago Thursday, January 07 2021 Jan 7, 2021 January 07, 2021 7:40 PM January 07, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE – Wednesday’s protests at the U.S. Capitol is causing a polarizing political shift. Some republicans are going against the grain, talking about what needs to change in their party, and experts hope it will drive both parties to unite.

“I would love to say I didn’t think it would happen, but I thought something was going to happen,” political analyst Clay Young said. “I think this has been smoldering for a little while.”

Young said the violence created political fallout almost immediately, putting all eyes on how Republicans reacted.

"What you are seeing is hesitance on the part of some Republicans to seem like they are going against the grain, and then you see some courageous Republicans who say we can disagree all day long, but we're not storming the capitol,” Young said.

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy says the Republican party needs to get back to the basics.

"If we just return as conservatives to the first principles - federalism, constitutionalism, state rights - we get our game back. It’s when we get distracted and focus more upon individuals rather than our party principles that we don’t do as well,” Cassidy said.

The Louisiana Democratic Chair Katie Bernhardt is hopeful the two parties can unite in the aftermath of the events.

“This is an opportunity for us, particularly in our state legislature and nationally, to work together on both sides of the aisle and support legislation that is good for the people - not just meeting partisan agendas."

Though she feels the state Congressional leaders need to apologize for the roles she believes they played.

“Some of the Congressional leaders signed on to a letter that further propagated the false narrative that was there, that there was voter fraud or irregularities which amount to an invalid election,” Bernhardt said.

In order to prevent similar violence from happening again, Young says both parties need to work together.

“The trend of violence of expression is what has stopped the works. That's what people saw yesterday, it was a wake-up call that this is not what we want to be. We can disagree, we can be different, but let's not be animals toward each other,” Young said.

Young says the next test will be in two weeks when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. 

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