What happened on January 6, 2021 is not okay; it will never be okay. And it was entirely preventable. Donald Trump has long signaled that he was willing to use violence to achieve his ends. His supporters have telegraphed their willingness to use violence to achieve their ends. Who stormed the Michigan State Legislature to protest wearing masks? Who plotted to kidnap Governor Whitmar? Answer – white, right-wing radicals. It wasn’t hard to figure out that a gathering of Trump supporters had as much likelihood to turn violent as any other protest we’ve witnessed in the past 24 months. Earlier that week, the leader of the Proud Boys was arrested for vandalism in DC. We saw police violently eject peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square because Donald Trump wanted them out. The violent assault upon the very core of our democracy should not be a surprise to anyone. It is the natural outflow of a president and party that has continually pedaled false narratives about the election. It is the natural result of allowing a president to continually stoke flames of discord and animosity. It is the inevitable outcome of allowing a sitting president to openly signal his most ardent supporters to be ready to come defend him. It is what happens when leaders are allowed to spread lies and conspiracies and falsehoods. We should not be surprised that Trump’s supporters came to defend him. And every Republican who played a role in supporting the lies and falsehoods should be held accountable for the violence that ensued that afternoon.
There are some who say that the Capitol Riots were led by people who feel unheard. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve heard them loud and clear for the last four years. We’ve heard their racist taunts, their chauvinist misogyny, and their hate. And we’ve said we can do better. We’ve said “NO” to the America they want. Sadly, Donald Trump and many Republicans in Congress have given them support and approval. Sadly, they have encouraged their vision for society. They have encouraged racism, fear, and hate. And when America said “NO MORE” they filed lawsuits challenging the vote (I will allow that Trump was entirely within his rights to sue the states). When the courts ruled them fair and lawful, the party of “law and order” cried “FOUL” even louder. They concocted conspiracy theories, some even originating with Trump, to explain why they were cheated and why the courts were wrong. When the Electoral College voted and upheld the results of our election, Trump urged his supporters to simply “fight harder.” He called and pleaded with officials to violate the law so that he could win. He threatened members of his own party if they didn’t deliver the results he wanted. Even as Congress met to certify the results of the Electoral College, Donald Trump actively encouraged his supporters to keep fighting and fight harder to prevent the election from being stolen. These people have been heard and America decided we do not support their agenda or their views. These riots were not the result of people feeling unheard; they were the result of grown adults acting like little children who just got told “NO.”
There are those who would say that I am missing the forest for the trees in the preceding paragraph, that I am oversimplifying the situation, that I am merely hearing their words and not what they are saying. To an extent, they might not be wrong. Because the underlying issue is one of self-worth. JD Vance hits on this in his book “Hillbilly Elegy.” As someone who was raised in the rural, poor, white hollers of Kentucky and Ohio, he’s familiar with the base of Trump supporters. For many of them, they are fully aware of their poor status, but they are white and, in their minds, that makes then better than any black person anywhere. They derive their sense of self-worth from their race. When we take that away, when we state that all people are equal regardless of race, we are taking away their sense of self-worth. Obviously, it is a misplaced and misguided sense of self-worth. It’s also one that cannot be easily changed, especially by individuals and institutions from outside the community. So, I don’t know what to do with it, but I’m also not willing to say anything other than the firmest of “NO’s” to their version of America.
We cannot talk about the events of January 6, 2021 without discussing the members of Congress involved in this debacle and their behavior before and after the Capitol Riots, specifically Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. The problem with the vast majority of their objections has to do with the timing and the obvious hypocrisy of the entire thing. None of the Republicans in Congress voiced objections to the changes in electoral procedures until after Trump lost. Many of the changes they objected to were enacted prior to the primaries. The specific objections raised by Senator Hawley were enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature in 2019. We’ve heard numerous Republicans rant about how changes were made by other elected officials – governors, secretaries of state, election officials – and not the legislatures as the Constitution requires. If that were their actual objection, then they should have been voiced well before the party conventions began because many states enacted voting changes at the direction of said officials as a response to the pandemic. Instead, they at least tacitly supported those changes as they recognized the need to make changes in the wake of a global pandemic. They only became concerned after Donald Trump lost. Their objections are not based in a defense of the Constitution or standing up for democracy; they are the desperate cries of a party that lost. And they know it. Mitt Romney said it best after the Senate resumed that night
The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. That is the burden, and the duty, of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won this election. President Trump lost. Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General and state election officials both Republican and Democrat have reached this unequivocal decision.
All of this brings us back to Hawley. If Republicans are all for only allowing state legislatures to change electoral procedures, why was the biggest objection of the day aimed at a state where the legislature made appropriate changes? The only answer one can come up with is that they are simply mad that their guy lost and they don’t want to admit it to themselves or their voters.
So now what do we do with them? What do we do with the 100+ Republicans who sought objections in the House? What do we do with Senator Hawley and Senator Cruz, who sustained those objections in the Senate? Do we lump them in with Donald Trump and consider charges of sedition? Do we demand their immediate resignation from office for shamefully disgracing the Constitution? I would argue that it would be pretty hard to pursue either option without opening up an even uglier can of worms. Democratic members of the House have raised objections to several recent elections (2000, 2004, 2016) and they have mostly been supported by a small handful of back-benchers. Those objections have largely gone nowhere because they were not widely supported by the party leadership and they had no support in the Senate. If we were to demand that those who objected to this election should be removed from office on those grounds alone, it would essentially eliminate that constitutionally protected right. And yet, the objections this time led to a riot and the breaching of the US Capitol. Words have meaning and we have to hold people accountable for the words they say. Donald Trump spread lies and misinformation regarding the validity of the 2020 General Election. Many Republicans in Congress supported those lies and helped to spread the misinformation. While many of them did not call for violence to prevent the election from being stolen, their failure to tell the truth allowed their supporters to believe the lies and simply “stand back, and stand by.” And when all other options were finally exhausted and they gathered in the Capitol to rally for Donald Trump, they allowed the sitting president to incite an attempted overthrow of the government. Those in Congress who did not defend the truth, who failed to oppose the lies coming from Donald Trump, helped to provide fertile soil in which to grow a rebellion. They may not have planted the seeds or even watered them, but they did nothing to stop the rebellion from growing. And the Capitol Riots represent the harvest of that crop.
How do we hold them accountable? We never let them forget what happened on January 6, 2021. We never let them forget all the times they remained silent when confronted with Trump’s lies. We never let them forget all the times they spread the very same lies. And in 2022 we vote every single Representative who supported those objections out of office. We convict them of sedition in the only court where such a decision will hold water – the court of public opinion. We hold them accountable for their abject failure to defend our democracy by never allowing them to hold office again. We hold them accountable by stating, unequivocally that We The People demand loyalty to the Constitution of the United States, not any one person. Loyalty to Donald Trump, or any other elected leader, should NEVER be greater than loyalty to our nation.
