YUROP

Counter-argument since I'm in a contrary mood. A scene like this is only possible in a democracy. In a genuinely authoritarian state, there are no protests on this scale. And certainly none where the protesters have uncovered faces and openly carry guns. And absolutely certainly none where those protesters are allowed by the police to enter the parliament building in order to avoid bloodshed, which is what happened here. In China this would have been either a revolution or, much more likely, a massacre, i.e. Tiananmen Square.

It's cold comfort, but the way this day played out was in fact a demonstration of how resilient US democracy is. The challenge is to stop the system being tested like this again.