A Year Later
Conservatives should not get caught up in the spirit of “whataboutism” to the point that we lose all objectivity, our values and sight of the bigger picture. Here are my thoughts a year after Jan. 6.
I know I wasn’t the only one dreading the anniversary of January 6. The whole debacle was a national embarrassment. It was also a strategic failure on many levels and a day on which Republicans lost their claim to the moral high ground after a summer of rioting in cities primarily led by Democrats. Here’s what I said as the events unfolded in real time and throughout the intervening year.
January 6, 2021
I had a bad feeling that the march was going to end in violence. People are going to want to discredit any attempt to support the President and those with bad intentions/anarchists tend to use the cover of protests to cause mayhem. Also, there are some who ignorantly think waving a flag from a balcony is going to change what is happening inside the building.
Regardless of one’s feelings about the election, it is not okay to breach fences, climb buildings, issue bomb threats or confront Members. This should have been in the vein of the March for Life-a powerful, peaceful march highlighting the cause-not a Seattle style uprising.
According to reports, the Vice President has been escorted out by Secret Service. Muriel Bowser, DC mayor, has ordered a 6 p.m. curfew and the National Guard has been summoned to keep the peace.
This is not what we do or who we are. Anyone found to be engaged in this foolishness should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Unlike the protests this summer when rioters waged full-scale assaults nightly, this is being done in broad daylight in front of the world. Shame.
If it’s not okay when they do it, it’s not okay when those on our side do it.
May 6, 2021
To be clear, the proposed Jan. 6 riot commission should take a serious look at the widespread security failures at the Capitol, devise a better communication plan for the various agencies and determine the best way to prevent future breaches. Unfortunately, Democrats are pushing it to disparage all Republicans in Congress, distract from the Biden Administration's domestic and foreign policy issues and make the upcoming 2022 elections a referendum on former President Trump. That's what this is all about.
July 27, 2021
While the January 6 hearings are an unmistakably partisan affair, conservatives should resist the urge to dismiss the testimony of some who will speak during the proceedings.
What happened on January 6 was horrific, tragic, ridiculous, and embarrassing for a number of reasons. I know some GOP talk radio personalities have sought to downplay what happened but, to be clear, the assault on the Capitol building should have not occurred.
There was widespread confusion so I'm sure there were some who came for the rally and got caught up in what went down but there were clearly those with reckless and harmful intent especially in the initial wave of attackers who made it abundantly clear why they were there. Sure, there were some who wandered into the building hours after they knew it had been shut down but they should have been able to figure out from the video earlier in the day that they were not supposed to be there.
I used to work a few doors down from the Cannon Office building (House office side). I was in and out of the building on an almost daily basis. To the Members who misrepresent how close those in the six office buildings which flank the Capitol were to the chaotic scene and actual harm, you are doing a disservice to those who were in the building or on the House floor. That was an entirely different situation.
I've been on the House and Senate floors on late-night tours of the Capitol with Members. I can't imagine hearing those mobs literally pounding down the doors of the chamber and scrambling for safety. It's easy to dismiss lawmaker's feelings at the time but we shouldn't do so because I'm pretty sure if hundreds of people stormed your workplace I don't think you'd stick around to see if they were friend or foe.
Both sides are trying to use January 6 to advance their own agenda.
January 6, 2022
I included the aforementioned Facebook posts to show my perspective on January 6, 2021, which has been consistent. It’s easy to be distracted by those on the extremes. A year later, here are some additional observations.
There were rumblings of potential violence ahead of the rally. Clearly, not all who attended the rally were aware of these calls to literally “Stop the Steal” and we don’t know how much federal agents were aware/involved in this chatter. Also, there appeared to be no clear strategy besides storming the Capitol to stop the certification.
The Members who decided to object to the certification of the election were within their rights to do so. The Electoral Count Act and their constituents empowered them to vote against the certification. Whether that was a wise idea is open to debate. Also, the irony of Rep. Jamie Raskin and others presiding over the impeachment after they themselves had objected in the prior election was rich.
The invasion of the Capitol was reprehensible and without justification. What happened during the hours between the first wave of rioters and the National Guard regaining control was a national embarrassment and, ultimately, an exercise in futility.
Members and reporters in the Capitol experienced a traumatic event. The fact that some have used this for political gain doesn’t erase the tense moments when they were donning gas masks, being rushed out of the chamber or barricaded in rooms.
President Trump missed the moment to speak out more strongly against the attack. Unfortunately, the move was on brand.
The riot exposed and exacerbated issues that already existed between members of Congress, members of the Capitol Police, the political parties and the media.
The significance of the United States Capitol and the process going on inside at the time of the riot are what put the Capitol riot in a different class than the oft-mentioned Black Lives Matter riots. The Capitol is an internationally recognized symbol of our country and our form of government. There is only one United States Capitol.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
George Orwell (Author of Animal Farm)
Perspectives on the riot and its significance largely fall along party lines. The exception would be the sentiment within the Beltway or those with ties to Capitol Hill.
Comparisons of 1/6 to 9/11 or 12/7 are unhelpful and distract from the larger debate that should occur about the lessons we should learn from this incident.
The whole sordid affair played directly into the Democrats and the media’s (but I repeat myself) narrative about attacking democracy and voter suppression. The rioters handed them the high ground, two future Senate seats in Georgia, headlines ahead of the 2022 midterms and, possibly, the 2024 presidential race.
When acknowledging wrong means being held liable and alienating the base, members from both sides are rarely going to buck the party.
The varying responses from the Capitol Hill police officers are to be expected. It may be unpopular but I don’t think the intervening suicides should be considered line of duty deaths. I don’t know if we will ever get the truth about the deaths and suicides since Jan. 6.
One of the realities of the post 1/6 world is the average citizen will never get to experience the Capitol in the same way. The lack of public access hurts the ability of citizens to be heard or visit “The People’s House.”
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
Rahm Emanuel (Former Obama White House Chief of Staff, Mayor of Chicago, current Ambassador to Japan)
Due to media bias, we are led to believe all Republicans are downplaying the events of 1/6 out of loyalty to former President Trump. That is not the case. Democrats want to make 1/6 the central issue of the 2022 elections, use the commission to distract from the Biden administration's difficulties and disqualify Trump from running in 2024. Republicans fall into two camps—those want the whole issue to go away because they realize it is embarrassing and those who feel the media is overhyping its importance.
By January 6, the election was over. The certification of the votes is largely a ceremonial procedure. Vice President Mike Pence should not and did not try to overturn the election results. Imagine if Vice President Kamala Harris was in a similar situation. Do we think that would bode well for preserving our constitutional republic? Many concerning issues, especially the pandemic related changes to voting, needed to be addressed but a guy in a fur cap sitting on the Senate dais wasn’t going to help bring about needed reforms.
As one who has attended my fair share of rallies during my D.C. days, I can attest to the fact that every rally attracts an extreme fringe on both sides of the issue. What we as conservatives shouldn’t do is get caught up in the spirit of “whataboutism” to the point that we lose all objectivity, our values and sight of the bigger picture.