It's Thursday, January 7, 2021, and there's only one thing to write about.
I am proud of our brave and conscientious congresspeople who, after the horrific events we watched and they went through at our nation's capitol last night, reconvened to continue the democratic process of confirming Joe Biden as the incoming president of the United States and Kamala Harris as his vice-president. Even Vice-president Mike Pence, shown in the photograph pounding his gavel to proclaim the confirmation (and, alone among constituents, not wearing a mask), let democracy win.
The violence seems to have brought some congresspeople to their senses at last. Many representatives and senators who had thought they would speak against the confirmation by declaring the election rigged or unfair realized the danger of adhering to, or pretending to adhere to, conspiracy theories and misinformation about the election, which is a kind way of saying they weren't considering the democratic process, only their own electability. Some, at last, retracted their proposed statements about a rigged election. Some, at last, stripped the lies from their faces and, in the face of the violence outside the door, faced truths.
And those people in the mob that stormed the capitol? They with their Confederate flags alongside American flags (of all things) and Trump flags and Tea Party flags and red "Make America Great Again" hats and signs saying, "Trump 2021" and "Return our freedom"? They who called for a guillotine in front of the capitol to execute politicians? Their thinking is not solid. These people need to take a good Writing 122 course. They need to learn how to discriminate between facts and misinformation, how to find trusted sources, why they can trust those sources, how not to trust what they read or hear from other sources. They need to learn how to keep from believing a thing simply because it is what they want to believe. "The election was rigged" is a convenient thing to believe if you like Trump. "The coronavirus is a hoax" is a convenient belief if you don't want to wear a mask.
Yesterday, blame was laid solidly where it belongs: on Trump. Trump, who told the protestors at the rally leading up to the storming of the capitol, to go to the capital and fight. "We will never concede. We love you," he said, truthfully, for there's no one he loves more than his adoring mobs, "You're very special. But go home." They didn't go home. They came to Washington as he wanted them to do. They fought. Trump instigated an insurrection.
And they lost. It's unclear what they expected to accomplish—and what did Trump expect them to accomplish beyond disruption and chaos?—since it was very clear that the process would continue, that Biden legitimately won the election, that the electoral college results would be confirmed, and that Biden will be inaugurated as the President of the United States on January 20, 2021.
On the other hand, they did accomplish important things. President Trump at last admitted, grudgingly, that Biden won the election: one step forward. Like other Trump-supporting congresspeople, out-going Senator Kelly Loeffler changed her mind about objecting to the outcome of the electoral college, saying, "I cannot in good conscience object to the certification of these electors." Elaine Chao, Trump's Transportation Secretary, has resigned. Her husband, Mike McConnell, Speaker of the Senate, abandoned the Trump ship. Former Attorney General William Barr, once a true Trumper, called Trump's call to violence "a betrayal of his office and supporters." Conscience over politics: another step forward.
Yesterday was one of the saddest, most horrifying days in American history, certainly in my lifetime. Yet at day's end, in a wrecked and violated capitol building, democracy picked up her broken pieces and continued her work. Democracy and truth, together, have kept the country intact.
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