From the Archive: Yesterday's Attack

The January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol should force everyone to look in the mirror

Four years ago, I couldn’t sleep after what had just happened and wrote this. The town where we live — Alexandria, Va., only 8 miles from the U.S. Capitol — had gone into lockdown. Earlier that day, I saw people who were staying at the hotels near our house strutting toward the Metro in their red baseball caps and MAGA shirts, not thinking that the unimaginable would soon unfold.

Needing a drink after what we saw on television, my wife and I agreed to meet at our local dive bar and managed to walk in just before the doors would be closed for several hours. At a table in another part of the bar, rallygoers wearing their paraphernalia sat.

Everyone was silent. There was so much that could — and would — be said, but the patrons were either in shock or quietly celebrating. It was a day and a feeling I’ll never forget.

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5 a.m., Thursday, January 7, 2021

As events unfolded just a few miles from where we live, I’ve read news stories and friends’ posts and watched clips of what took place yesterday in our nation’s capital. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what happened.

Finding my own words, however, has been difficult.

Because, as much as I think that words still matter, I’m having trouble reconciling what I’m reading and hearing with what I have always believed. “This is not us” is a phrase I’ve read often. But while that applies to individuals, yesterday’s events can’t help but call that broad brush statement into question.

Read this quote: "The attack at the Capitol was a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system. The Department of Justice should vigorously prosecute everyone who was involved in these brazen acts of violence. … Debate in the two houses of Congress is the proper way to resolve our political differences, not through violent attacks."

Sounds logical, until you see who said it. The person is Ted Cruz, one of a handful of senators who has only stoked the extremists’ flames by refusing to accept what the courts have said over and over: The president lost the election.

It’s easy to condemn violence after it takes place, but why should it take an assault by an uncontrolled mob to cause eight of the 20 Senators protesting the election’s outcome to stand up and say enough?

Do you think those who were complicit in creating the atmosphere that led to the violence are suddenly shocked into reality, or that they become even a little different in their world view? Or is this just the latest example of hypocrisy and political role playing? The same goes for cabinet members who are resigning rather than be pressed on the execution of the 25th Amendment that would forcibly remove the president from office.

I think it’s the latter. Which leads me to the question, “Do words really matter anymore?”

The Danger of Unchecked Power

Time and again over the past four years, people have defended the actions of a person who — in my opinion — is a direct threat to our vulnerable (yet ultimately resilient) democracy. Our president’s fraud, lies, racism, and misogyny have been bundled up and absorbed into the DNA of the disenfranchised, who then hide under the words of God and country and individual freedom.

Think about this for a moment: The president won’t accept the results of an election he lost, instead fueling the flames by claiming voter fraud and insisting on recounts. HIs rambling, likely illegal phone call to the Georgia secretary of state was part of a string of lies, more lies and even more lies. His bullying of the vice president to overturn the electoral college certification was desperate evidence of a further assault on democracy.

Yesterday, it all came to a head in an act of domestic terrorism. And that is what it was. Shockingly, both sides agree about that, or at least they say they do at this moment.

This morning, as people on all sides were calling for the forcible ousting of the president, he had the nerve to tweet that he is committed to an “orderly transition” of power. At best, that’s too little too late; more likely it’s just another lie to add to the landfill pile.

Democracy, we can all acknowledge, is a flawed ideal, one we have been taught since we were children. How you take what you’ve been taught to believe and apply it is another thing.

Case in point: Black Lives Matter protesters were met with rubber bullets and tear gas outside the White House this summer just so the president could have an ill-advised photo opp with military leaders while holding a Bible. The conversations around law and order, and the powers of police, hummed through this country all summer and into fall.

Then, on Wednesday, a mob of extremists were able to crash through Capitol security, breaking windows and roaming the halls of the building. One person was shot and killed after breaking in through a window. Three others died in the chaos.

Where were the police? Why did it take someone besides our president to call in additional assistance to stop the melee?

No matter what you say, deep down you know the answer. And if you don’t, then shame on you.