Tomorrow is the big day. Below, Al Franken waxes a bit whimsical and comic relief is always welcome. Dan Rather cautions us that these public hearings will not be the same as the ones in 1973 exposing Watergate.
There are many reasons for this disparity — from our news sources to our collective attention spans to the fissures wrought by polarization. A perfect example is that Fox News will not be airing the hearings live (apparently accountability matters only if it involves Benghazi).
But the difference in how these hearings are conducted and perceived does not reflect their relative importance. The events of January 6 posed a far greater danger to national stability than the actions of President Nixon and his confederates — and that’s saying a lot.
The exercises that begin Thursday night are less for the scholars of the future than the voters, politicians, and law enforcement of the present. This is a story for which the ending will be determined by the choices of the electorate, by the actions of elected officials of conscience, and in the jurisdictions of state and federal prosecutors.
The essence of this story is simple: President Trump lost the 2020 election and tried to burn down American democracy to keep himself in power. We do need to better understand who knew about this nefarious plot, when they knew about it, and how they facilitated it. But the primary contours are not in dispute.
Will this story convince enough Americans to come together to demand and oversee accountability and change? Or are people so entrenched in their ideological camps that fostering consensus is impossible? Will those who continue to believe the lie-filled rantings of the former president (abetted by those cynically using those lies for their own benefit) prevail in weakening our country’s commitment to democracy? They very well could if these hearings are met with apathy and shrugs.
I agree with Franken that it would be good to know more about Mike Pence. I especially want to know if Pence feared he would be assassinated if he got into the limousine and left and that’s why he refused to do so.
Once again, I am sobered by Jamie Raskin’s words, “This was not a coup directed against the president. It was a coup by the president directed against the vice president and against the Congress.”
Wow. And Dan Rather thinks that people won’t be riveted to hear this. And the sad part? He is very probably right.
Don’t forget the counter programming in progress. The GOP has assured us all that January 6 is bupkis and nobody cares about it — only about the price of gas.
If that is true and that is in fact the case, I fear we have already lost the republic and it’s just a question of time before there is some actual Republican autocratic takeover.
Ursula, you know as well as anyone voters too often vote because of their pocketbooks. If gas, food, etc. are still in the territory they are price-wise, every dem running is likely to lose. The horrible thing is there isn’t much that can be done. There is no way to prevent what is happening now with inflation after the pandemic. It is the logical result of a world-wide disaster that shut so many industries down. Unfortunately, Americans are none too bright when it comes to things like Economics and such. Trying to explain to an American why this was the only result possible when so many industries utilize Just In Time inventory systems, when so many have off-shored production, etc. is a waste of time-Americans cannot handle that much thinking.