On November 22, 2000, an army of well-to-do, mostly white men stormed a meeting of canvassers in Miami-Dade county, Florida. Election staffers were busy recounting every vote in the county due to several glitches in the technology used to cast each ballot. The rioters disrupted the recount, barricading the halls and threatening violence on local government staff. Officials decided to shut down the entire recount operation, a turn of events that wreaked havoc on the entire democratic process and ultimately handed the presidential victory to George W. Bush.

The event would become known as the “Brooks Brothers riot,” a nod to the high-end suits and ties outfitted by the group of protesters. It was regarded as one of the greatest threats to American democracy in recent history — That is, until last week.

Mark Twain’s famous sentiment that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes, was reaffirmed on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 6, when a group of Pro-Trump rioters blasted the U.S. capitol building in an attempt to protest President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Among the damage: Shattered windows, smashed doors and a growing number of reported deaths — emblems of a democracy in shambles. Replace the MAGA hats and American flags with chinos and blazers, and these riots bear a cunning resemblance to the events in Miami-Dade 20 years ago.

Of course, the Brooks Brothers Riot occurred on a much smaller scale, with fewer people and less violence. However, it wasn’t exactly a peaceful protest, either.

“This one guy was tripping me and pushing me and kicking me,” Joe Geller, who served as Miami-Dade county’s Democratic Party chairman at the time, told the Washington Post in 2018. “At one point, I thought if they knocked me over, I could have literally got stomped to death.”

The Brooks Brothers riot serves as a microcosm of what can happen when leaders prioritize their own political gain over a fair and secure democratic process. After all, the Bush campaign was largely responsible for the events of November 22nd. The former president, who at the time served as the Governor of Texas, publicly and vehemently objected to the recount in Miami-Dade, a process that would ensure all votes that were cast could be fairly counted. He also knew that a thorough recount could cost him the election — pollsters projected Miami-Dade would swing blue.

In the end, Bush won the election by only 537 votes. And, according to a joint study from the Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel and the Chicago Tribune, 15,596 votes in Florida were discarded because counting machines could not determine the voter’s intent. Even more shocking is the fact that Brooks Brothers rioters were later paid by Bush’s recount committee. Many of them, including Matt Schlapp and Garry Malphrus, went on to serve in the Bush administration.

Another key participant was Joel Kaplan, who served as a policy advisor to the Bush Campaign in 2000 and later the Bush Administration. Then, in 2011, Kaplan joined Facebook as VP of public policy, a move that the social media giant hoped would improve its ties to republican lawmakers on the hill. While at Facebook, he has defended the use of racial slurs and other hate speech by the site’s users and made it incredibly difficult for the site to protect against fake news. In 2017, when Facebook changed its algorithm in an attempt to mitigate the spread of misinformation, Kaplan fought back, claiming that this decision would hurt conservative publishers. His argument was enough to convince the team at Facebook to change back the algorithm.

But it was this very algorithm that made it possible for pro-Trump rioters to organize what many are calling an attempted coup. Facebook has since rolled out a new set of regulations aimed at tracking instances of hate more effectively. However, these measures were reactive, not proactive. Instead of taking cues from previous violent rallies, such as the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Facebook maintained an algorithm that allowed users to plot and plan a violent and deadly attack.

It’s easy to blame President Trump for these events: His tweets and public comments condoned violence and praised rioters for their “patriotism” — as if proudly flying the American flag and violently breaking into the U.S. Capitol were synonymous acts. He encouraged a raid on the capitol at a rally outside the White House, telling supporters that he planned to march with them — a promise he ultimately did not keep. It was only after begging from aids and top advisors that the president released a statement asking his supporters to go home.

There’s no doubt that Trump added fuel to the fire. But the flames were ignited long ago, and they’re still burning. At first glance, the Brooks Brothers riot may seem but merely a line on America’s grand resume, but a closer look provides more context, illustrating the profound impact that recent history has on the present moment.

The events of the last few weeks have been discouraging, and especially frightening for those of us who call the nation’s capital home. But what gives me hope is that despite these efforts to overthrow American democracy, our lawmakers stood strong. After a day of chaos, the House and Senate reconvened to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. It’s an encouraging reminder that while our democracy is under siege, it is not yet broken.

Originally published on Medium