JAN. 6 WAS A REHEARSAL FOR WHAT’S TO COME
Since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign in 2015, his contempt for democratic ideals has been on constant display. The fairly common assumption early on — perhaps better labeled a hope — that getting elected would rein in the New York business tycoon and reality TV star turned out to be a delusion. “I’ve always seen him as a man who defines himself by the number of norms he can violate,” one of his biographers, Michael D’Antonio, told Vox shortly after Trump took office in January 2017. “He gets a thrill out of ... proving that he doesn’t have to go along with what other people expect.”
A year ago today, Americans witnessed the ultimate awful example of this. On Jan. 6, 2021, the defeated president gave a fiery speech to thousands of his supporters in Washington, D.C., in which he repeated the Big Lie that Democrats had “stolen” the 2020 election “from you, from me and from the country” and exhorted, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” He encouraged his followers to march on the Capitol to disrupt a joint session of Congress to formally certify Joe Biden’s election as president — to “try and give [Republican members] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
Trump’s supporters did so, and mayhem resulted. At 1:49 p.m., shortly after the session began, insurrectionists broke down barricades outside the building. Twenty-four minutes later, representatives and senators were rushed into hiding by officers who realized they had lost control of the Capitol. Rioters could be heard calling for the hanging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence — who was presiding over the session — as they rampaged through the building, reaching Pelosi’s office. Two hours later, Trump tweeted out a call for the mob to go home. By 5:40 p.m., police had regained control and cleared out the rioters.
Five people died that day: a police officer who collapsed apparently after being sprayed with a toxic chemical, three in the crowd who suffered medical emergencies and Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and a conspiracy theory devotee from San Diego who was shot and killed by an officer while climbing through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby inside the Capitol. Four officers who fought with insurrectionists later committed suicide. More than 140 officers were hurt during the attack, suffering concussions, broken bones and Taser injuries. More than 700 people have subsequently been arrested for actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
As the riot unfolded on national TV, congressional Republicans who correctly saw their lives as in danger begged White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to have Trump immediately call for his supporters to back off. In a phone conversation that day with Trump, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy profanely rebuked him for defending those defiling the Capitol. The next week, McCarthy said pointedly, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
That day, Trump family members and media loyalists realized what a tragedy the attack was for American democracy and what a blow they thought it was for the 45th president’s legacy. Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump urged him to quickly intervene. Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade texted Meadows with the same plea. “Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home ... this is hurting all of us ... he is destroying his legacy,” Ingraham wrote.
One year later, incredibly, Trump and his allies now assert Jan. 6, 2021, is a part of his legacy to be proud of — that the protesters who backed Trump were fighting for democracy, not trying to destroy it. McCarthy has long since returned to his status as a 100 percent Trump loyalist, shamefully staying silent as his longtime friend, Rep. Liz Cheney, RWyoming, has been treated like a scoundrel for her sin of being honest about what happened that day.
But for any American with any loyalty to the nation, what’s truly ominous about Jan. 6, 2021, is that it is not the scariest thing that’s countenanced and explained away by Republicans. Instead, it feels like a rehearsal for the seditious power plays to come.
This is not a reference to the 19 states that have passed laws restricting voting in the last year but to something more devious. Since Trump asserted the election was stolen after TV networks declared Biden won, state-level Republican operatives in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan have set plans in motion to allow them to throw out election results they don’t like. Their main method is to rewrite state laws to shift the certification of results from nonpartisan officials to partisans, and to allow these partisans to decide which ballots to count and which to reject. They are also preparing legal arguments that state legislators have the authority to override voters’ decisions.
How can these GOP officials openly plan such an assault on democracy? Because they know the Republican base largely believes Trump’s claim that he won in 2020 — as well as his poisonous “Great Replacement” view that America is losing its Americaness (translated: its Whiteness) because of vast changes resulting from Democratic policies on immigration. A Morning Consult poll released this week showed only one-quarter of Republicans thought the insurrection was a major issue going forward and another new poll by The Washington Post and University of Maryland found Republicans nearly 2-1 over Democrats think it justified for citizens to take violent action against the government.
Will this movement fizzle out if health or other issues prevent Trump from running in 2024? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — seen as front-runners if Trump is out — both tout the Big Lie and the America-in-decline tropes. The Trumpification of the GOP is nearly complete.
University of Chicago scholar Robert A. Pape wrote that the rhetoric the Trump movement uses is precisely parallel to the rhetoric that led to the Yugoslavian civil war in 1991: “The survival of a way of life is at stake. The fate of the nation is being determined now. Only genuine brave patriots can save the country.” If Trump, DeSantis or Abbott lose despite attempts to manipulate voters, watch out.
It is hard for many to grasp that America may be on this track. It also remains hard to believe a civil war is possible, given the Pentagon’s extraordinary resources and ability to monitor communications.
But it is easy to believe that America as we know it could rupture. If sedition leads to a Republican presidential victory in 2024, attempts by progressive states to secede from the union — only starting with California — are certain no matter how complicated it appears. When the values of two large groups are so at odds — when mutual partisan hatred is so intense — divorce may seem like the only option.
“If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen,” said Ronald Reagan. “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America,” said Barack Obama. With every passing year, these sentiments sound more hollow. The first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection comes with a divided America struggling against a common enemy: COVID-19. Meanwhile, a cancer gnaws at us from within.