January 6

 Don’t Let it Happen Again

 

On January 6, 2021, we witnessed, the world witnessed, a violent attempt to overthrow the hallmark of our democratic form of government, the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another after a full, fair, and fraud-free election. Through our televisions, computers, tablets, and phones we watched in horror as a violent mob stormed the halls of Congress searching for congressional leaders and chanting, “hang Mike Pence.” The attack was planned to stop the congressional certification of the Electoral College vote for President and Vice-President. It was encouraged at the highest levels of the outgoing administration and coordinated with alt-right groups like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and others. They erected gallows with a hanging noose outside the Capitol to prepare for a lynching. Some wore printed t-shirts proclaiming a new Civil War was starting that day.

 

On the one-year anniversary of the insurrection, President Joe Biden addressed the nation on television and finally took the former president and his supporters to task for their roles in fomenting the riot and then doing nothing for hours to stop it. 

 

President Biden’s remarks deconstructed the lies that are being continually circulated that the presidential election was really won by the former occupant of the White House. He noted that every challenge mounted in courts where oaths are taken to tell the truth and evidence required to prove one’s claims failed to carry the day. He noted that the only election claimed to be tainted was the one for the top of the ticket while Republicans did well in the other races that day for state governorships, Senate seats and House of Representative positions. He noted that we cannot unite until we stop those who would “put a knife to the throat of Democracy.”

 

Up to this point, President Biden has refrained from calling out the defeated former president for his role in starting the carnage, to “fight like hell,” then watching it from the White House on TV and not doing anything to stop it for hours.  Even after calls from GOP congressional leaders and Fox media pundits to speak out against the violence, the former president could only manage a weak call for the violence to stop while praising the rioters as “patriots.”

 

Biden is correct. We are still at war for the soul of our democratic form of government and must reject political violence and autocratic leaders who care more about their egos and the retention of power than they do about any of us or our institutions. We cannot move forward while trapped by a strongman cult.

 

At the heart of the call is the sacred right to vote and to have the might of government pass from one group to the next peacefully after fair and full elections. These are the same issues raised here and elsewhere about gerrymandered electoral districts and voter suppression measures being passed by Republican state governments. They are echoed in the failed electoral “investigations” championed by the likes of our own Assembly Majority Leader Robin Vos and his lacky, former short-term Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Michael Gableman. 

 

As noted by our own County Board Chairman Don Kriefall, we must unite to do battle, not with an undefined amorphous “left,” but with those who would dismantle the great American Experiment in self-rule. It is time we had fair maps of our electoral districts and ensure that everyone born on these shores or naturalized to citizenship is able to cast their ballot for representatives to govern the body politic. 

 

It is only when we have a universal franchise that the goals of equality and inclusion will be realized. We need not fear the voices of the many or the views of the newly arrived, America was built on them and has thrived because of them. 

 

United, we will reject violence as a means to achieve and maintain the power to govern. United, we will once again embrace we are one people with a common goal to have a safe and prosperous place to live and raise our families. United, we will care for each other by following the science to cure disease and help us all live healthy lives. True Freedom comes from recognizing that we are all in this together and can only succeed if we all succeed. 

 

We must hold those who created, launched, and crashed through the gates of the Capitol a year ago responsible for their traitorous actions to make sure that those who might try to repeat that experience will rethink the wisdom of those plans. We must never forget what happened on January 6, 2021, if our democratic republic is to survive.