Remembering January 6
Hint: It was an insurrection and a full frontal assault on America and Democracy
I originally scheduled this publication to hit inboxes at 12:53 p.m. Central Standard Time on Jan. 6, because that would mean - to the minute - it would hit inboxes exactly one year since our country and all of its ideals were attacked, assaulted, and desecrated by insurrectionists who loved the lie their leader sold them more than they loved their country or its future. But I decided I needed a little extra time to finish this up before publication.
As long as I have the wherewithal to type, speak, or hold a crayon in my hand, I will do something to mark this day - I’ll do what I can to remember what it really was and I’ll do all I can to not allow the re-writers of history to whitewash, massage, or minimize what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
What happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was an insurrection. It was an attempted coup and an effort to undermine our democracy. And it was the result of a deliberate misinformation campaign that led people to believe that an election had been stolen, and as such, they had the right to violate our Constitution and physically attack duly elected members of Congress, and Vice President Mike Pence, as they took the final step in certifying the election results. They were egged on by people in power, people who hoped to hold onto that power, and who were eager to weaponize fear to keep that power - regardless of the human and social toll it might carry.
I remember exactly the moment I learned our country was under attack. I had attended a legislative meeting with school superintendents from Reno County - who regularly meet with legislators ahead of the session to share their concerns. Only one member of the Reno County delegation was absent, due to travel that took him out of town that day. The rest of us did what we have done in years past - gather and listen.
I emerged from the meeting completely unaware of what was happening halfway across the country - until I started my car and heard the news on the radio. That’s when I learned about Jan. 6, and the insurrection, and that an angry mob had attacked our nation’s capitol.
At home, I turned on the television and began to watch the coverage. My mom called - and she’s about as conservative as they come - to express her concern and outrage.
“What is wrong with people,” she said.
I didn’t have an answer.
Friends called and texted to see if I had seen what was happening in Washington, D.C. To see if I had seen what could never, ever happen in a country like America.
But it did happen here. And it will happen again if we allow ourselves to forget what it really was and what it was really all about. (Here’s a really good article about how close we were to losing democracy, and the ongoing effort to undermine our country)
Jan. 6 was not a bunch of tourists visiting the U.S. Capitol.
Jan. 6 was not a bunch of Patriots protecting America.
Jan. 6 was not a bunch of people standing up for the integrity of our elections.
And Jan. 6 was not a bunch of concerned Americans standing up for their rights.
Jan. 6 was an insurrection, as defined in the dictionary:
insurrection (against somebody/something) a situation in which a large group of people try to take political control of their own country with violence.
Some might say that the people have a right to take control of their own government - and that’s all that was happening on Jan. 6. It was simply a group of oppressed people concerned about the direction of the country. And the situation was so dire, and their oppression so acute, they booked flights and hotel rooms, rented tour buses, or took vacation time to drive their well-maintained vehicles - loaded up with very expensive military-style riot gear - to nation’s capitol to protect their eroding freedoms by capturing and holding our freely-elected government hostage and making it respond to their demands.
The big lie, a year later
Here, a year later after the attempted takeover of our Democracy, there are people who still beat the drums of war, who still insist that the truth is a lie and the lie is the truth. People who would have you believe that the election was “rigged” or “stolen” and because of that, you have every right to do whatever you see fit to remedy the situation.
The people who say that don’t care about you. They don’t care about our country. And they don’t care about our future. They care about their elections, their profits, their notoriety, and their power. And they will use you - and all your anger and fear - if it means they can get what they want.
Here in Kansas, we have an absolutely absurd situation - where homesick Texan and defeated Johnson County commissioner Mike Brown is building his entire campaign for Secretary of State on the “Big Lie” of election integrity. (Waves non-magic hand distractingly in the air) Forget that former President Trump won Kansas by huge margins, and that Republicans did outstandingly well in the last election. The fact that any Republican in this state is campaigning on the idea that our elections lacked integrity would be laughable if it wasn’t so insidious. Unfortunately, he’s not the only person seeking office - or already in it - who is relying on this lie to prop up their political fortunes.
And don’t even get me started on the slap-in-the-face such nonsense is to the more than 100 County Clerks across the state. For someone like Brown’s story to make sense, you’d have to believe that every clerk in the state was part of some elaborate hoax, where they met in a secret bunker to design their sinister plot to ensure that Republicans maintained their nearly 160 year stranglehold on Kansas politics.
I’ve met toddlers who make better arguments about why they should be allowed to eat candy for breakfast.
And what’s more, it’s not a Democrat that he’s attacking - it’s a fellow Republican. And a conservative Republican at that. Current Secretary of State Scott Schwab is about as bona-fide Republican as they come without falling off the ledge. (I served with him in the Kansas House my first year in). I might not always care for Schwab’s political view of the world, but he’s done his job and approached the role with decency and integrity.
But to hear people like Mike Brown tell it, Schwab is complicit in handing the presidential election to Biden. And now, Schwab, if he wants to keep his job, will likely be forced to demonstrate to voters that he isn’t a part of some communist Anti-American cabal. He’ll probably have to at least tacitly validate the concept that our elections are suspect in attempt to prove that he did his boring job of signing papers sent to him by those 100-some-odd county clerks who are clearly in the Kremlin’s employ. (insert sarcasm emoji here, and a note for a future column about the zany politics of Republican primary elections).
I’ve been to several conferences in the past year where elections officials from around the country have addressed the claims of voter fraud/election integrity. There is zero evidence of voter fraud or irregularities anywhere in the country that rise to a level that would’ve changed the outcome of the election. Ironically, the key thing that has cast doubt on our election integrity is people who won elections and keep saying there’s a problem, when there isn’t.
I can understand why some people so much wanted the election to swing the other way, and why so many people are upset. Our system isn’t working for most people - and that has nothing to do with political affiliation and everything to do with money, power, influence and control. But that’s a column for another day - and believe me that day is coming.
The Path Ahead
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We have to be a little sharper about recognizing when we’re being used, exploited, and manipulated. And we have to hold reality up against the people who would have us believe that what we can see for ourselves isn’t real. In Kansas, that should be quite easy - if there’s election fraud in our state, if our elections are in question, then why do so many Republicans win in so many races with so little effort or question? If Democrats are stealing elections, they’re doing a terrible job of it.
But this isn’t just about Kansas, though that’s where I care about most.
Around the world, our enemies must be relishing in our self-destruction. It seems we have done to ourselves what they’ve never been able to do - divide us up into warring factions to fight against ourselves until we have no more fight left for them.
On Jan. 6, 2021, I can’t help but imagine that high ranking officials in countries that don’t like us much must have been sitting around a TV in delight, laughing at the moment the U.S. started to unravel, and they never had to fire a single shot to make it happen (though it’s now abundantly clear Russian operatives worked to manipulate the emotions of Americans via social media in the past several years).
We are in a precarious time. Our country will have a future, but what that looks like largely depends on us and our decisions. We can choose to hold onto anger and fear, and we can act on those feelings, vote on those feelings, and indulge the lies of people who care more about themselves than they care about you, our country, or our future generations.
I’d like to think we can do better. I’d like to think that we can see January 6 for what it really was, that we can approach the future with hope, possibility, and vision. Or if we’re really unhappy with the way things are going, instead of indulging lies and propaganda, we’ll shake our heads in disappointment, roll up our sleeves, and do the hard and uncomfortable work required to keep our Republic.
Additional reading
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence
https://www.politico.com/tag/jan-6-rioting
https://libguides.union.edu/c.php?g=1126166
https://www.brookings.edu/events/january-6-insurrection-one-year-later/
https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/reflections-on-the-jan-6-insurrection/
Jason — it’s hard to believe I am the first to comment on your post today. Whatever the tweaks to the column were, delaying publication from Thursday to today, well done — the message is straightforward, coherent.
But I am already humming along in your choir, imperfect pitch tho’ I carry. I hope more will come work on the chorus which you and I find so beautiful and compelling. The infinite rage of our country, state and neighbors… even those with whom I have policy differences (see - didn’t resort to useless mischaracterizations). I long to hear the full range of our true cacophony!!