FAIRMONT, W.Va. — A Fairmont State University professor says if the nation is going to heal from what happened Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol residents need to stay informed and understand government.
“People need to get back to understanding what is actually going on,” Fairmont State Political Science Professor Greg Noone said Thursday during an appearance on WAJR Radio’s ‘Talk of the Town.’ “Sandra Day O’Connor famously said, ‘A country that doesn’t teach its citizens civics is doomed to fail.”
Protesters forced their way into the Capitol Wednesday afternoon as they moved closer to the House and Senate chambers, House and Senate members were evacuated into a secure area.
Police found two pipe bombs, one each at the Democrat and Republican headquarters. Additionally, police located a cooler in a car that contained a “long gun” and a suspected Molotov cocktail on the capitol grounds.
Noone pointed out it wasn’t the first time there was violence inside the capitol.
“In 1954 a Puerto Rican nationalist group went into Congress and actually shot at congressmen and wounded four or five,” Noone said, “It was a pretty shocking thing.”
Noone said the country, and politicians have become so polarized in recent years that has increased speculation around the possibility of a third party on the national stage.
“People always talk about the emergence of a third party, and I’m not so sure it will,” he said. “But, if there was ever a time, now would be a good time because there’s a real fracture in the Republican Party.”
Noone said the majority of the American electorate is moderate and believes the people occupy the extreme ends of beliefs are truly the minority.
“This is what’s going on- Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz- this is radical and the people storming the Capitol they’re radical,” Noone said, “They’re not true Republicans, they’re radicals.”