1 Year Ago Today, America was Attacked
How does America look 1 year after the attack on our capital and what it means for our democracy.
My generation has grown up with a government that doesn’t work well together for the majority of our lives and the entirety of our formative years. Growing up under the George W. Bush administration, there was some gridlock, but nothing like today. Partisanship grew incredibly fast and sudden with the election of President Barack Obama and the attack of the Tea Party, and in 2016… we all know that story. I was still fairly young during the beginning of the Obama presidency, so when the infamous representative from South Carolina Joe Wilson yelled “you lie!” in Obama’s 2009 State of the Union Address, I had really no idea what a big deal that was. I remember my mother and my Republican father looking shocked when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that “our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term in office.”. We all thought that that was the worst it could get.
On January 6, 2020, the President of the United States rallied a group of his most loyal supporters to the U.S. capital in order to “stop the steal” of the election that was won by Democrat candidate Joe Biden. Although it was more than obvious that Biden was the rightful heir to the presidency, Donald Trump believed differently. He not only encouraged, but incited thousands of angry supporters to take siege on our capital which was certifying the results of the election by Trump’s own Vice President, Mike Pence. After an hour or two of angry yelling and not much happening, the mob of people did something that was unprecedented. They pushed against the capital police force, stormed into the capital, and began looking for senators and representatives to do only God knows what to them. With gallows being set up and many in the riot being armed, we could only fear the worst. Today is 1 year after the attack on American democracy, and what has happened in response to this? What has changed in discourse, and are brighter days ahead?
The Response
Just days after the attack on our capital, every single Democrat in the House of Representatives along with 10 Republicans voted to impeach President Trump. It passed easily, but it died in the senate as the 60 senators needed to remove the president was not reached. All Democrats and 7 Republicans in the Senate voted to remove the president, and this was the most bipartisan impeachment proceeding in American history.
After the impeachment process, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to have a public commission ran by Congress. Every Democrat and 35 Republicans voted in favor in the commission. The U.S. Senate turned down the public commission as it did not reach the 60 votes required. All Democrats and 6 Republicans voted in favor of the commission, however Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema were not present for the vote. After the bill was shot down, the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a private commission along with two Republicans, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, who are currently serving on the commission.
Along with legislative activity, many new political movements have sparked in response of the January 6 riots. One of the most consequential and popular is a movement called Country First, sponsored and founded by Representative Adam Kinzinger Illinois. As stated before, Kinzinger was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach President Trump in January, he was one of 35 Republicans to vote for a public commission, and he is 1 of 2 Republicans currently serving on the private investigation. Country First was started as a ways to bring people on the left and on the right together to restore democracy, the rule of law, and bipartisanship/ pragmatism.
Changes in Discourse
Despite what should have been an event to bring both parties together in order to fight for a greater good (that being democracy), political discourse has actually worsened in general in the shadows of January 6. Although plenty on the left and the fight have tried and have been trying to bring political discourse back to a place that was at least respectable. However, extreme partisanship and name-calling is continuing to not only fail to spark conversation, but is pushing Americans farther away from the center. Those who still stay centre-left and centre-right are becoming what we know as “politically homeless”.
As our political discourse becomes much more explicitly aggressive and uncompromising, so have our actual policies. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have shifted farther from the center of the political spectrum in hopes of gaining the votes of some of the more extreme partisan voters who are more interested in “other-side-ism” than actually helping the country heal. Republicans used to be a party of fiscal responsibility, free trade, and promoting American sovereignty across the world. And Democrats used to care about the working middle class, helping those in need, and promoting social equality. Conversely, both parties have dissolved into not “Why you should for me"…” but instead to “Why you shouldn’t trust them”.
Another disastrous change in discourse comes directly from the right. After and during the attack on the capital, many right-wing conspiracy theorists still peddle the ideas of Qanon, an absolutely absurd and untruthful belief that Donald Trump became president to shut down alleged sex trafficking that many establishment politicians were a part of. This is where the phrase “Drain the Swamp” became popularized. Since the rise of Qanon, these conspiracies have taken over many parts of the Republican Party and are even being peddled by a few representatives, specifically those in the Freedom Caucus, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
What Lies Ahead
As of right now, it is really hard to see which direction the country will go. And I’m not talking about who will take control of Congress in the next election cycle. What I am really concerned about is will one specific man, the man who incited an insurrection at the capital, the man who almost broke democracy in the most powerful nation in the world, will be put back into power. Donald Trump, in my honest opinion, is a threat to this country and Trumpism is the tool that he uses to ruin society. I pray there is a day in the near future that we can go back to discussing policy issues and what is best for the American people without involving the former president, but for right now, I do not see that happening.
Anybody who knows me well will tell you I am a very optimistic person compared to most, so I will end on a high note. The good news is, we still have time to stop Trump from taking power. We all have the power and the right to vote. If you don’t think your vote matters, trust me, it does. I’m not going to advocate for any specific ideology or party, mainly because I am not a Democrat and I am disillusioned with the Republicans. Everyone has a bias, and everybody leans a specific direction politically, so vote for you want to. If that is Donald Trump, you go out and vote for him if you really believe what he says. But I know the majority of the country does not want to see him as president, and I say to those to vote for someone else in 2024. That may be the Democrat candidate, or it may be any Republican in the primaries. Whoever it is, just vote, our country depends on it.
January 6 was a dark day in American history, and I will never forget what happened. I am committing myself to the ideals of our nation to never let anything like that happen again.
If the mainstream press had treated the entire summer of rioting proportionally to the capital riot, I would have taken it a lot more seriously.
People on the left can burn down cities and kill and beat people up for months, and it's "mostly peaceful protests". Some crazy, fringe "conservatives" - which were separate from the thousands of peaceful protestors - riot for a few hours (the only person that died was shot by police) and it's talked about for over a year.
None of it is ever the right thing to do, but I wish it could be treated proportionally.