Much like the days of national tragedy - April 14th, December 7th, November 22nd, September 11th - January 6th is now entering the American memory as a major anniversary.
The day donald trump talked a mob into raiding the United States Capitol to disrupt the formal vote on the Electoral College results that named Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election.
We're now at the point where our elected leaders - President Biden himself - are making speeches about the impact and seriousness of this anniversary. As quoted from Biden's Valley Forge Speech:
Today, we gather in a new year, some 246 years later, just one day before January 6th, a day forever shared in our memory because it was on that day that we nearly lost America — lost it all.
Today, we’re here to answer the most important of questions. Is democracy still America’s sacred cause? I mean it.
This is not rhetorical, academic, or hypothetical. Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time, and it’s what the 2024 election is all about...
Three years ago tomorrow, we saw with our own eyes the violent mob storm the United States Capitol. It was almost in disbelief as you first turned on the television.
For the first time on our history, insurrectionists had come to stop the peaceful transfer — transfer of power in America — first time — smashing windows, shattering doors, attacking the police.
Outside, gallows were erected as the MAGA crowd chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Inside, they hunted for Speaker Pelosi [of] the House, was chanting, as they marched through and smashed windows, “Where’s Nancy?”
Over 140 police officers were injured. Jill and I attended the funeral of police officers who died as a result of the events of that day.
And because Donald — because of Donald Trump’s lies, they died because these lies brought a mob to Washington.
He promised it would be “wild,” and it was. He told the crowd to “fight like hell,” and all hell was unleashed...
There's hundreds of video clips out there highlighting the rioters attacking, getting into places that should have remained secure, waving the historic flags of insurrection and cheering each other on as trump watched his followers do his dirty work. In spite of all the attempts by the Far Right and the Republican leadership to downplay the violence of that day - claiming it was peaceful, focusing only on the parts where the mob stood around not knowing what to do next - people died. People were scarred.
All because donald trump is terrified of being seen as a loser. All because trump dare not lose the legal protections the presidency gave him.
Everything trump did on January 6th - and all the things he did leading up to that riot - were violations of the Oath of Office Presidents are sworn to: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
trump was NOT faithful to the Constitution or the office of the Presidency. trump did NOT act to the best of his ability to Preserve or Protect or Defend the Constitution. he actively attacked the Constitution, tried to stop the Electoral Count, got his followers to raid the legislative branch to undo that count, and then continued to lie about the election results - to deny that he lost - to keep his mob ready to fight in the next Presidential election cycle (which is now).
It is that violation of the oath of office that is a serious matter today, this anniversary of trump's betrayal. It is because of that betrayal of the oath that trump is on the brink of being denied from running for office again. The Colorado State Supreme Court ruling - and the Maine's Secretary of State's findings - found that trump engaged in insurrection when he incited his mob:
Trump’s attorneys also had urged the Colorado high court to reverse Wallace’s ruling that Trump incited the Jan. 6 attack. His lawyers argued the then-president had simply been using his free speech rights and hadn’t called for violence. Trump attorney Scott Gessler also argued the attack was more of a “riot” than an insurrection.
That met skepticism from several of the justices.
“Why isn’t it enough that a violent mob breached the Capitol when Congress was performing a core constitutional function?” Justice William W. Hood III said during the Dec. 6 arguments. “In some ways, that seems like a poster child for insurrection.”
In the ruling issued Tuesday, the court’s majority dismissed the arguments that Trump wasn’t responsible for his supporters’ violent attack, which was intended to halt Congress’ certification of the presidential vote: “President Trump then gave a speech in which he literally exhorted his supporters to fight at the Capitol,” they wrote...
Even the judges who are giving trump his due process are finding he incited violent insurrection, which means he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
This all matters on today's anniversary because the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Colorado ruling by February 8th, leaving it to them - the highest arbiters of constitutional law - to determine what trump truly did reaches the level of insurrection. SCOTUS would have to accept or overrule the lower court's findings that trump incited insurrection, they would have to figure out what the 14th Amendment means by "taken an oath of office" and if Presidents are officers of the Untied States (you would think by common logic that both apply here).
If the Supreme Court fails here - if they go by partisan design and grant trump the right to run for office in spite of the public acts he's done - we are guaranteed future insurrections every four years on January 6th as rioters disrupt another Electoral count. It won't stop with trump, it will continue on with all the mini-trumps following in his wake.
If the Court finds that trump did engage in these riots - which doesn't require the Due Process of a criminal court trial (which trump is still facing this March) - and applies the 14th Amendment to deny his spot on the ballot, we may get MAGA riots in the streets soon after: But the anniversary of January 6th will fade into a calm reminder that violence had no place in the American democratic republic. It didn't work in 1861 and it shouldn't work in 2021.
Let justice prevail, SCOTUS. trump violated his Oath of Office that January 6th. Hold him accountable to it.
1 comment:
"or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
That's the part they are gonna have a hard time weaseling out of.
The damn fool is promising to pardon them, and recorded a song with them. How is that not aid or comfort? They are the already convicted enemies of the US government, seditious conspirators according to an article three court of law.
His idiot hordes will not like the truth, having been wooed on a trough of lies and told they were right about their fantasies. That is their problem. They will try to make it our problem, but it seems to me that the most capable troublemakers are already imprisoned or at least on trial, making the mass organization weaker and less likely.
I remember my dad, who was born in the thirties in Oklahoma, railing against the protesters against the Vietnam war by accusing them of wanting to overthrow the government. He didn't live to see the goddamn Republican party try and nearly succeed in overthrowing the government, and maybe that's for the best.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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