Just four short months ago, thousands of people gathered on the National Mall to hear the president of the United States, members of Congress, and a variety of other speakers assert falsely that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. It was the president himself who urged the crowd to march on the Capitol building. He even said he would accompany them, but he did not do so.
Thousands made their way up Capitol Hill confronting police officers and dismantling barricades along the way. Once at the Capitol, they attacked the police for hours, smashed windows and doors and hundreds forced their way into the building.
Many in the mob searched for Members of Congress and the vice president of the United States in order to kill and lynch them. Elected officials and staff of both parties fled for their lives. It was a terrifying and tragic day, marked by loss of life and an unprecedented effort to overturn a free and fair election.
What was further shocking was the fact that even after the shameful attack—just a few hours later—-147 members of Congress stood with the attackers and voted to overturn the election.
To this day, 70% of Republicans assert the election was stolen. Many Members of Congress continue to press this claim. This is an extremely serious charge. I’ve tried to understand the arguments, but they simply don’t make sense or hold water. Dozens of courts rejected the claims of those who assert the election was fraudulent. Even the Supreme Court, hardly a bastion of ‘socialism’, refused to hear the cases.
The conspiracy theories made against Dominion Voting Systems, a company that sells voting machines and software across the US, by President Trump and his supporters have been debunked and Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, and the American Thinker have withdrawn their allegations against Dominion. Meanwhile, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell have fallen silent as they face defamation lawsuits from Dominion.
Politics is politics. It’s one thing to say you wish the election results had been different, but it’s another thing entirely to assert in the face of all the evidence that it was stolen. This is a denial of reality. This is trutherism.
This week, several members of Congress deny an insurrection took place at all even though the entire world watched it unfold live. Rep. Clyde of Georgia said the rioters were engaged in a ‘normal tourist visit’ to the Capitol (although it was closed to the public on January 6).
The attempts to track down all those who invaded the Capitol and committed crimes on January 6 have been denounced by Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona. Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas denies that an insurrection took place at all.
Most famously, Rep. Lynne Cheney of Wyoming was voted out of her House Republican leadership post because she states that refusal to accept the election results amounts to accepting a Big Lie.
This is much more than a simple political disagreement. This is a tipping point. We can’t see this as simply an entertaining argument playing itself out on television and social media. The continuing attempts to deny the election outcome and to pass legislation in the states to suppress future votes—all of this is intended to undermine our democracy. This is intentional.
We should never forget or downplay the gravity of the January 6 insurrection. Conservative political columnist George Will wrote on that very day about Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley that “Each will wear a scarlet ‘S’ as a seditionist.” That label belongs not only to all who invaded the Capitol but to all who support what the mob did that day.
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