REPUBLICAN REJECTION OF THE JANUARY 6 COMMISSION: IS THIS WORSE THAN MEETS THE EYE?

Why would President Joe Biden say on Memorial Day that “Democracy itself is in peril?” No modern president has issued a comparable warning.

Military veteran and former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a one-time Republican Senator from Nebraska, suggested a military coup could occur in America when he said, “The real threat is internal.” He added that America’s future is “in jeopardy.” What are Biden and Hagel worried about? What are they telling us?

Are they afraid one of our major political parties – the Republican Party – has become the anti-democracy party?

If not Treason, What?

On January 6, hundreds of mostly white people stormed the U.S. Capitol. They hoisted the Confederate flag, constructed a hangman’s noose, and overcame Capitol police with guns, knives, bear spray, clubs, and

poles. They took over both congressional chambers and chanted things like “Hang Mike Pence” and “Kill Nancy Pelosi.” Their invasion ultimately caused five deaths.

For more than four hours, the mob disrupted

congressional certification of Electoral College votes. Securing the Capitol took that amount of time. In all American history, the United States Capitol building had never been taken over by domestic invaders and only once –during the War of 1812 – by foreigners.

Though many in the crowd wore Trump

clothing and carried Trump signs, some in the right wing media claimed the insurgents were actually Black Lives Matter and Antifa members masquerading as Trump supporters. Some suspect

Republican members of Congress may have helped organize the invasion or at least enabled it.

 

Who’s Complicit?

House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and the ranking

Republican on that committee, New York’s John Katko, drafted bipartisan legislation that would have created an independent commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy regularly consulted Katko during that process and Thompson gave Katko all he asked for in the negotiations. Still, McCarthy withdrew his support and urged that Republicans vote against the measure. Only 35 GOP members ended up voting with Democrats when the measure passed the House.

In the Senate, Republicans launched a filibuster, meaning the legislation needed 60 votes. Just seven Republicans joined 50 Democrats in voting yes, so the measure failed.

               

Why would 43 of the 50 Republican senators not

want answers to the questions surrounding the insurrection? Who organized it, for example? Why were the invaders determined to overthrow the democratic process by violent means? What were Republican senators afraid of? Why would they not support bipartisan legislation aimed at getting the facts about such an unprecedented domestic attack on the American Capitol?  Something is clearly afloat.

One obvious answer lies in the control Donald Trump still exerts over the base of the Republican

Party. In controlling that base, he controls members of Congress it elects. “He has a grip over politicians because he has a grip over voters,” says Carol Leonnig, author of Zero Fail: The Rise and

Fall of the Secret Service. These elected officials want to maintain their offices  and the benefits that go with serving the interests of movement conservatism. An interlocking set of institutions and alliances wins elections by stoking cultural and racial anxiety while using its power in pushing an elitist economic agenda, as  Paul Krugman writes in Arguing with Zombies. Since Republicans want to regain control of the House and Senate, they know they can’t do so without the white lemming that makes up the Republican base.

In the wake of the GOP’s rejection of the January 6

commission measure, former Trump national security adviser Michal Flynn, once a three-star general in the U.S. Army, told a QAnon conference a military coup “should happen” in the United States. Flynn referred to events in Myanmar, where the military overthrew a democratically elected government on the basis of unproven allegations of voter fraud. Other similarly disturbing statements from Trump supporters haven’t gotten the attention Flynn got, but it appears treasonous comments are becoming common place among Republicans and Trump supporters.

 

So What’s the Bargain?

Lyndon Johnson, the nation’s 36^th president, once said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 as the

champion of the little guy. His only significant legislative achievement, however, was a tax cut for the rich that ripped a hole in the social safety net his blue-collar supporters need. So, what do those supporters get out of the deal? Mostly, it seems, what President Johnson told us – a chance to look down on someone.      

Trump no longer pretends he’s going to make life better for working class whites in his base. They get xenophobic diatribes and racist venom directed at blacks, browns, and Asians but not much else. In the final analysis, Trump gives them someone they can look down on. Meantime, with the support of that base, the Republican Party has become the anti-democracy party. It seeks to deprive all but white people of the benefits of democracy. That’s the Faustian bargain. So they can look down on blacks, browns, Asians, and other out groups, Trump supporters discard democracy, with the complicity of their leaders.

So, we ask again – what do Biden and Hagel know? If we ignore the clear and present danger this “deal,” this “bargain” Trump’s supporters and GOP leaders have struck, we could all lose.  

                            

THE BIDEN-HARRIS INAUGURAL: FOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE

 

The last episode of the great television drama The West Wing centers around the inauguration of Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) as successor to the show’s two-term president, Jeb Bartlett (Martin Sheen). While riding to the capitol, Bartlett asked Santos about his speech. Santos replied that it included a few good lines, but nothing like John F. Kennedy’s ‘Ask not what your county can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ Bartlett sneered, “Yeah, JFK really screwed us with that one, didn’t he?”

When Joe Biden delivers his inaugural address, it’s unlikely he can meet the JFK standard either. Nobody has since that bitterly cold day in 1961 and little in Biden’s rhetorical past suggests he has such a speech in him. That doesn’t diminish the importance of the moment or the address he will give.

 

A Different Inaugural

Few inaugurals in American history present the combination of challenges this one does. Perhaps this resembles 1933 as Franklin Roosevelt faced the great depression. Maybe 1864 compares when the nation remained deadlocked in the Civil War. Knowing Biden could do as well as Abraham Lincoln that day would put everyone’s mind at ease.

With the January 6 invasion and occupation of the U.S. Capitol by a mob inspired by outgoing President Donald Trump, our political situation arguably rivals what Lincoln faced. These marauders, having builtgallows outside, marched through the building waving Confederate flags and shouting “Hang (Vice President) Pence.” The House of Representatives has since impeached Trump for his role in the insurrection and the U.S. Senate will soon hold a trial.  Add the pandemic that has killed 400,000 Americans and still rages and throw in the historic nature of the new vice president’s ascent and we have a truly unprecedented situation.

The January 6 debacle means a massive security presence at the capitol for the

inaugural ceremonies, including thousands of National Guard troops, tall fences, concrete barriers, and multiple checkpoints for capitol employees and the limited number of visitors who can attend the festivities. Inaugurals play a key role in showing the nation and the world what a peaceful transition of power looks like in a

democracy. Trump’s decision that he won’t attend diminishes that to an extent, but even the symbolic power of an appearance by the outgoing president pales in comparison with the need for putting the destructive Trump presidency in the rear-view mirror. Biden now doesn’t want him at the inaugural and neither do many Americans.

   

The security arrangements and the pandemic dictate that this inauguration

look different than any we’ve seen. First, thousands of people won’t look on from the capitol mall. Though Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office on the capitol steps as usual, social distancing will keep attendance at a fraction of normal. Biden’s inaugural committee has told his supporters they shouldn’t travel from across the country for the proceedings, recommending television or virtual viewing.

 

The Harris Factor

The challenges of the nation’s political divide, Trump’s impeachment, the pandemic, and the resulting economic difficulties will justifiably make Biden’s speech the lead in every post-inauguration news story. Calmer circumstances would likely mean more emphasis on the swearing in of the nation’s

first female president or vice president. Kamala Devin Harris of California will make that history when she takes the oath of office as the 49^th vice president. That she is also a woman of color only increases the historical significance. Trump’s blatantly racist presidency and the number of Americans who would have given him a second term squash any suggestion her election hails a post-racial America.

 

Biden says she will play the same kind of role in this administration he played in the Obama-Biden years. He promises he will consult her on every major decision and make her the “last person in the room” in those situations.

 

The Speech and the Job Ahead

Harris will stay busy presiding over the senate following Democratic victories in Georgia runoffs that made the upper chamber a 50-50 party split. The incoming administration has plenty on its plate. Biden and Harris emphasize how much they will focus on the pandemic. As one observer put it, the coronavirus remains the “boss” of everything and everybody. Until the country gets it under control the things ordinary Americans most want can’t happen -- an economic revival and a return to normal life unfettered by social distancing,fan-less sporting events, and restrictions on family and  other gatherings. The pandemic, the limping economy, the political and racial divisions January 6 so starkly demonstrated, and the country’s fragile psyche make for a long, complicated to-do list.

      

Biden’s speech, therefore, requires substantive and spiritual components. Substantively, he need not provide every detail, but he should offer an outline for conquering the pressing problems, including the need for restoring the hollowed out federal government Trump leaves him. He must convince people he will work for them and show he will govern in a way that benefits everyone.

 

The moment also requires a speech that touches souls. It must offer hope for renewing the American spirit. After four years of a lawless, destructive presidency marked by racial discord and political turmoil, a bitter campaign, and a dangerous, tumultuous lame duck period, Biden faces a tired, discouraged, and distraught country.

 

Inaugurals serve many functions. They

represent renewal  and new beginnings. They also put American democracy on the world 

stage and advertise the virtues of our system. January 6  and Trump’s four years

dimmed our brand. America’s first chance at polishing its image comes with the Biden-Harris inaugural. Even with an 

dimmed our brand. America’s first chance at polishing its image comes with the Biden-Harris inaugural. Even with an impeachment proceeding against Trump pending in the U.S. Senate, a little JFK-style inspiration might help.

GOODBYE TO THE TRUMP YEARS: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR DEMOCRACY

We have learned from history that Fascists can reach high office via elections. When they do, the first step they attempt is to undermine the authority of competing power centers, including parliament or in America, Congress.

                                                         -Madeleine Albright (Fascism: A Warning p. 234)

We haven’t written enough about preserving American democracy. The January 6 occupation of the U.S. Capitol by a mob inspired by President Donald Trump brought home to us why we must write about that subject regularly, beginning now.

Some might think Trump’s imminent exit from the White House and installation of a new administration will assuage concerns about threats to democratic values and institutions. On the contrary, we think the end

of the Trump presidency presents a perfect opportunity for examining what happened the last four years and what Americans must do that will ensure democracy remains our form of government.

 

A Tortured Four Years

We think Trump has been wrong about environmental protection, voting rights, immigration, criminal justice, taxes, and many other policies. That’s not what we mean by a “tortured four years.” No, we refer to his assaults on democracy as a governing ideology.

His attack on democracy as our basic form of government constitutes the greatest sin of his time in office. He has put supporting evidence for that claim on constant display. 

                       

The January 6 insurrection, spurred by an incendiary speech in which he urged that thousands march on the capitol in support of his bogus voter fraud claims while Congress tabulated the Electoral College votes, stands as exhibit “A.” The resulting 

carnage, thanks largely to a massive security failure, left at least five people dead, the capitol building ransacked, and a huge black mark on American democracy and its standing in the world.  Comparisons to December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, as dark days in the nation’s history weren’t inappropriate. There’s lots more:      

·     The Phone Call. On January 2, Trump called

the Georgia Secretary of State asking that he “find” votes that would overturn President–elect Biden’s victory there. He asked that election officials “recalculate” the returns and give him the votes that would reverse the outcome in the Peach State. Search as many did for a benign explanation or interpretation of Trump’s words, none appeared. It was extortion of the kind more commonly associated with mob bosses and Mafia dons. First readings of federal and Georgia election statutes suggested he crossed the line into criminal misconduct; 

·     Misusing Congress. To avoid the peaceful transfer of power his defeat requires, Trump enticed Republican members of the House and Senate to challenge duly certified electors, leading to the January 6 riot. He challenged votes in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, overwhelmingly black cities, in a blatant attempt at marginalizing the black

vote standing  between him and his effort to turn America into an autocracy. This largely unprecedented action followed a string of over 50 defeats in lawsuits he brought aimed at throwing out votes or advancing unsupported voter fraud claims;

·     Misusing the pardon power. His granting of

pardons and commutations to cronies, family members, and business associates who have committed crimes against the United States demonstrates his contempt for democracy, democratic institutions, democratic norms, and the rule of law;

·     Attacking the judiciary. Trump’s initial assault on a federal judge of Mexican descent began an attempt to drive a wedge between Latinos and other Americans while diminishing respect for the judiciary;

·     Denigrating America’s world standing. By reducing our commitment to NATO,

Trump hoped he could free the United States from democratic norms NATO members must follow, thereby making easier alliances with autocrats;

·     Kowtowing to Vladimir Putin. Trump would not criticize Russian interference in the 2016 election and he took Putin’s side against the

findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in that election. When reports surfaced of Putin putting bounties on U.S. soldiers, Trump said nothing. When cyber experts uncovered a massive computer hacking almost certainly carried out by the Russians, Trump, without evidence, blamed it on China;

· Ukraine. Trump’s refusal to release appropriated funds for Ukraine’s defense

against Russian aggression unless the Ukrainians helped him dig up dirt on his domestic political opponents evidenced his autocratic preferences and disregard for the American constitution;

·     Personalizing the Justice Department. Trump’s conversion of the Attorney General from the people’s lawyer to his personal counsel flagrantly abused his power and undermined the rule of law; and

·     Misuse of the military. By ordering that U.S. troops clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park in Washington for his photo op, Trump demonstrated the true nature of his autocratic tendencies.   

 

Lessons

Listing Trump’s bad acts represents only a first step. We remain far from knowing all we should about his assault on democracy. As we learn more, we’ll say more about what happened and about what we should do.

We began with former State Secretary Madeline Albright’s observation abouthow fascists acquire power, even in democratic systems. We turn to her book again as we close:

When we awaken each morning, we see around the globe what appears to be Fascism’s early stirrings: the discrediting of mainstream politicians, the emergence of leaders who seek to divide rather than to unite, the pursuit of political victory at all costs, and the invocation of national greatness by people who seem to possess only a warped concept of what greatness means. (p. 118)

We think Secretary Albright’s warning is for us, as in U.S.