The Capitol Attack 1 Year Later: A Warning Shot That We Really Haven't Seemed to Learn Much From Yet

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the attack on our nation's Capitol. However, while there have been a number of arrests and some convictions a number of the participants it appears that very little was done to prevent an incident like this from taking place again in the near future. Even worse, one-third of voters still believe in the "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen and that violence against the government can be justified. With that in mind, there should be little doubt why 6 in 10 Americans think that democracy in the US is in crisis and a majority fear a repeat of the events of January 6, 2021. I wanted to reflect on the events of January 6th and discuss some of the issues it presents for the future of our country.

The Causes and the Insurrection

The causes for insurrection have been cited by so many and so well covered, including brief ones by me in my 2021 recap article, that I won't go into great detail here. I will instead list the basic components of it. Donald Trump lost the election on November 3, 2020, but he began claiming that he had actually won the election and that it was stolen from him through fraud. His claims of voter fraud were expected, as he also claimed voter fraud cost him the popular vote when he lost it during the 2016 election. Unlike the 2016 election though, this time he had also lost the electoral college and thus a path to re-election. From then on he began making more and more desperate moves. These moves included calls to both Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, asking for assistance in overturning the results of the election in Georgia and encouraging then Vice President, Mike Pence, not to certify the election results in the US Senate all the way up to the morning of January 6, 2021.

When these efforts failed, on January 6, 2021, near the White House he instructed the crowd to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell," which they did. Although Trump told the crowd that he would join them at the Capitol, he went back to the White House and watched on TV. Not long after arriving the crowd breached the Capitol and Trump waited more than 2 hours to call in the national guard. In the end, 5 people died in the Capitol that day, hundreds were injured (including 140 officers), and 4 police officers who defended the Capitol have since committed suicide.

The Aftermath

The aftermath of the insurrection has been very typical of the American justice system, being initially fairly lenient to the mostly white participants and most lenient on those responsible for the events (i.e. Trump). Most of the insurrectionists were initially allowed to go home and were later charged, many after posting incriminating evidence of themselves on social media. Trump became the first president to be impeached for a second time by the House of Representatives, but he was later acquitted by the US Senate. The reason given at the time was primarily that he was already out of office when the vote took place in February 2021.

The House of Representatives has since created a January 6 committee and has begun calling in people for questioning, but many have refused to comply, claiming executive privilege. Former White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, and former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, have already been indicted for contempt of Congress, and the House expects to release an interim report by this summer and a final report by the fall. However, if for some reason the House doesn't make its the deadline this fall, the report will likely be permanently discontinued if Republicans regain control of the House.

The Lies Have to Be Addressed

The most troubling thing about the insurrection is that it all stems from a lie, and the main parties perpetuating the lie (Trump and the far right-wing) seem to have yet to see any real consequence or reason to stop. Yes, the House did impeach Trump again and he got permanently banned from Twitter, but with the Senate acquitting him the Twitter ban seems to be the only lasting consequence for him thus far. If I lied about a bomb being in an airport, and it led to a panic that caused one person to be injured, I would expect to be arrested and charged for it. Trump's lie and the right wing's echoing it, resulted in 9 people dying, hundreds being injured, and our country having the most turbulent transfer of power since at least the 1876 election that resulted in the end of Reconstruction. However, the only people who seemed to have paid for it thus far are those who were low-level participants.

It also appears that the right-wing is not limiting itself to trying to rewrite/lie about recent history, like the results of the 2020 election, but has gone on to do the same with history in general. Much of last year the right-wing has perpetuated the lie that the law/graduate-level course Critical Race Theory (CRT) is being taught at the k-12 level, redefined CRT to nearly any discussion about racism and white privilege, and used it as justification to limit future discussion on race. The lie that CRT is being taught in schools has led to laws in several states, and already become major talking points for candidates on the right, from school board elections all the way up to gubernatorial races, like the one in Virginia which I discussed more in-depth in a previous post.

With lies like these floating around and very few consequences for their perpetuation, I don't see what is to stop future lies from being made up to justify more despicable actions. We clearly need to find a better way to address these lies, because the current methods of simple corrections don't seem to be working. Additionally, if the last couple of years of this pandemic has taught us anything, it's that people who have their mindset on something, even a lie, can be very difficult to convince otherwise.

We don't tolerate acts that lead to violence in most other segments of society. Can you imagine giving a slap in the wrist to someone who encouraged another to shoot up a school? I'd hope not. In a similar manner, I'd hope that we also hold accountable those in public office (myself included) for lies told that cause death and injury to others. If not, our democracy will likely result in being eroded, because it requires trust to function at its most optimal level and if we do not find a way to address the lies leading us to violence, we will not have the trust necessary to function as such.

Conclusion

While the final resolution to the January 6th attack on the Capitol appears to be still pending, it doesn't appear that our country has learned much from the incident. A huge swath of Americans seem to believe the "Big Lie" and the only ones who have suffered any real consequences for their spread have been low-level participants in violent incidents like those seen at the Capitol. We are in desperate need of a new way to address the lies that are leading to the eroding of our democracy and until then, we will likely find ourselves subject to another violent insurrection in the near future.