Is this America? A breach in peaceful transition of power.

The mob violence that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol Wednesday shattered stately doors and windows and trampled on the long-cherished national ideal that the United States of America is exceptional for its peaceful transition of governing power.

Rioters distinguished by red MAGA hats and waving Trump banners and Confederate battle flags swept past barricades and overwhelmed police in a sight some lawmakers said reminded them of war violence in distant lands, not Washington. The breach occurred just as the House and Senate had begun debating challenges to Electoral College votes, and forced both chambers into recess.

The U.S. has been riven by actual warfare in its past. But it is now 2021, not 1860, and the resurgence of some of the nation’s dark passions is a stark reminder that democracy and peaceful politics do not occur automatically, and must be cultivated and defended over and over again.

“It’s not that this is unprecedented, but for this generation, it feels new and like we’ve crossed the Rubicon,” says Theodore R. Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.