Capitol siege must be a turning point
The scenes that Americans and people all over the world witnessed on Wednesday were shocking. A mob laid siege to the Capitol, the most cherished symbol of our government and way of life.
The last time our Capitol was attacked in such a manner was during the War of 1812 by the forces of a foreign enemy. This time it was Americans laying waste to their own nation’s shrine.
It was the tragic result of extreme political rhetoric taken too far and a failure to follow time-honored practices that have ensured a peaceful transfer of power in this country for more than two centuries.
President Donald Trump must be held accountable for inciting this terrible display and failing to immediately and forcefully condemn it.
The president was within his rights to pursue legal challenges to the Nov. 3 election. They were rejected by officials and judges representing both major parties on the state and federal level. Once all 50 states certified their results and the Electoral College count became clear, that should have been the end of it.
Instead, the president and his allies turned what is supposed to be a ceremonial congressional count of the electoral votes into another occasion to inflame his supporters. He encouraged people to come to Washington to protest and gave them the erroneous impression that Congress or Vice President Mike Pence might somehow take action that would overturn the election result. Then immediately before Congress met, he called on supporters to march to the Capitol. Unfortunately all too many of them took the call to fight for his presidency quite literally.
There’s a tendency among some to dismiss the niceties of politics as antiquated and pointless. But there are good reasons for them, especially when it comes to the aftermath of elections.
We’ve had many bitterly contested elections in our history, going all the way back to the race between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800. But when it’s all over, the loser concedes, wishes his successor well and encourages supporters to do the same. Are the sentiments always sincere? No. But it starts the process of getting people to live with the outcome, no matter how disappointing.
Our system of government offers plenty of means to make one’s dissatisfaction known without going to extremes. People are free to fight their political opponents’ initiatives tooth and nail and work to achieve a different result in the next round of elections. They can push state governments to make changes in election processes as well. But anything resembling insurrection, as we witnessed this week, is beyond the pale.
We can only hope that some good emerges from these tragic circumstances. All Americans should celebrate the fact that within a matter of hours the rioters were removed from the scene and that Congress was able to complete its work.
It’s heartening that lawmakers of both parties overwhelmingly confirmed the election results and made clear that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be treated as the legitimate president and vice president of the United States come Jan. 20.
Do we wish that Republicans in Congress had acted sooner in acknowledging the election result and discouraging the president’s troubling behavior over the last two months? Yes. But we still are glad that they did it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speeches before and after the invasion of the Capitol were powerful and moving. It was vitally important to hear such a stirring defense of our shared principles from a figure who has been at the center of so many bitter partisan disputes in recent years.
We pray that Wednesday’s awful event marks the moment when the fever infecting our body politic finally starts to break. The problem has been festering for decades. It’s long past time to stop treating our fellow Americans as enemies because they hold different views. The siege of the Capitol shows where the path of vitriol and vilification has taken us. It’s time to choose a new direction.