The insurrection didn't end on January 6

posted by Jeff | Thursday, January 6, 2022, 6:05 PM | comments: 0

By January 6, 2021, the American system of democracy, electing a president, worked as intended. We can have debates about the usefulness or legitimacy of the electoral college, but at the end of the day, everything worked as designed. Joe Biden won, Donald Trump lost. Those interested in helping Trump consolidate power challenged the results in courts all over the country, alleging fraud, but the courts rejected every single one of these challenges since they lacked evidence. Trump's own attorney general rejected the claims. If there really was any fraud, why would it have only been applied in the presidential election? Remember, the same ballots are used for every office from president down to dog catcher. There was no fraud, and pointless recounts actually favored Biden more in some cases, not less.

But the former president insisted that the same system that got him elected in the first place was ripe with fraud, and there are still people who believe that, again, without a shred of evidence, and little more than a mountain of butthurt that their guy lost. What resulted a year ago was not a peaceful protest, it was a violent mob where police were attacked and ultimately five people died. The peaceful transfer of power was delayed for the first time in all of American history. Let's not pretend that it wasn't a serious and dark point in our history.

I think we're all maybe a little more relaxed because there isn't any daily outrage or a new scandal (Biden is, apparently, "Sleepy Joe" in that respect). But the desire to acquire power at all costs is still happening. Most of the Republican party pretends that January 6 didn't happen. Many protested the certification of the election, which itself is counter to the oath to defend the Constitution. State legislatures are taking the administration of elections out of the hands of civil servants and handing that control to partisans. They're instituting laws that make it harder to vote, in the name of solving a security problem that didn't exist, but to use their own parlance regarding gun control laws, it only interferes with law-abiding citizens.

A year has passed, but the threat is still there. It's not about fairness or some flag-waving patriotism, it's about power.


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