A Day That Should Live in Infamy

On January 6, 2021 the then President of the United States called for his supporters who had not accepted the results of 2020 election to come to Washington D.C. to protest the perfunctory duty of Congress and the Vice-President to count the Electoral votes from each state.  At a rally a series of speakers ginned up the crowd to a fever pitch and then the out-going President told them to go to the Capitol and he would be with them, to make their voices heard.  He told them to fight like hell.  And they did.  Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building, with weapons of all kinds, attacking police and chanting for the death of members of Congress.  They violently entered the building breaking police barriers and beating law enforcement officers causing hundreds of injuries to them.  We all saw it either live or in hours of video.  The intent was simply to stop the transition of power in the Federal executive.  It was an insurrection, the should be not debate.  But there is. 

This week, the Republican party has decided that this didn't actually happen.  Liz Cheney was ousted from her leadership position in the GOP because she won't go along with the continued lying of former President about the election.  She also voted for impeachment after Trump's inciting the attackers of democracy on January 6th.  Cheney has been a classic conservative and voted with the former President nearly 100% of the time.  Her conservative credentials are not at all in question. However she is replaced by a member who has been less conservative, less a Trump supporter in her Congressional votes, but promotes the lie of the President about the election.  A lie that includes saying that the people who stormed the Capitol building were patriots.  

To put a finer point on that, there was a Congressional hearing this week on January 6th.  Elected members of Congress, while taking their time to question the people in-charge of security for the day, said completely insane lies.  Representative Andrew Clyde said, "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures," Clyde said. "You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit."  Even the footage that may have shown that included people wearing Nazi slogans and carrying Confederate flags.  He and many in the party seem to be ignoring the video of attacks, some of which was released this week, showing the desire of the anti-American/pro-Trump attackers calling for the death to police and reports of them calling out for the death of elected officials and the use of the N-word.  

On Friday, Congress agreed to a commission to investigate the events leading to and during the attack on the Capital.  The GOP leadership is not happy with this bipartisan group looking into the events of the day because so many will have to speak, under oath, after having changed their tune to support the former President who continues to control so many members of party.  So many want to link it to anti-police protests in 2020 that led to vandalism and rioting in general.  While that is something that needs to be understood.  Attacking the heart of democracy is different and the question of whether elected officials and the then Executive branch members were involved.  We need to know what happened, why, and if there is future danger of it happening again.

The Republican party has given up its leadership to the former President who continues to call out anyone who doesn't bend the knee to his fantasy vision of the world.  They have given up on policy and conservative values over it.  Liz Cheney was replaced by a woman who has a lower Club for Growth (a conservative political action committee) than Democratic squad member Ilan Omar.  If the Republican party continues to walk down this road they will simply become the cult they look like and not the loyal opposition to Democrats.  Cults have a way of destroying themselves.  The GOP has already starting do it.  If they are able to push January 6th into a memory whole they will succeed.  That could be the beginning of the end of our Republic.