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Gavel on American Flag
When I talk to the few very partisan Trumpers I know, they will call the January 6 hearings another “witch hunt,” a total waste of money, nothing new, or it’s just a coverup to obscure the fact that Donald Trump won, possibly by a landslide. Others are surprised that they are learning that January 6 is much more complicated and much better planned than they realized. We learned that Trump was told he lost in December 2020 by his Attorney General, top level White House staff and even his campaign staff, so he knew the “Big Lie” was a lie.
They are also impressed that it is a successfully functioning bi-partisan committee with Rep. Liz Cheney, former Chair of the House Republican Conference and the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, co-leading the committee with Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson. This was how the Watergate Committee functioned back in 1973 and ‘74. Democrats and Republicans worked together to try to learn what really happened. When democracy is at stake, this is what a bi-partisan committee should look like. Being bipartisan doesn’t mean one side stacking the committee with partisan street fighters like Representatives Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, or Majority Taylor Green. The job of these congresspeople on this committee is to put democracy first not try to win at all costs for your team.
Representatives Thompson and Cheney have put together a very compelling story of what really happened on January 6, 2021 and who were the major players both at the scene and behind the scenes. They have been very careful not to overreach. The story is almost exclusively told by Republicans and Trump supporters, appointees, or staff.
Why is it So Important to Drill Down and Get All the Facts?
Obviously, we never had a president who lost an election orchestrate a violent attack against the Capitol and refuse to accept the loss. This is part of the story we proudly tell the world that America always has a peaceful transition of power and that is why our democracy has lasted 235 years. It is important that these hearings create a record of what happened so the public understands how close we came to perhaps losing our democracy and to try to ensure that it never happens again.
This is not a fight over an issue. Debate over issues is how a democracy works. This was an attack on the foundation of our democratic system. People describe this as an attempted coup. I bristled at first when I heard this called an attempted coup, but now after the hearings, I don’t feel that description is an exaggeration.
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According to the surveys, a lot of Americans are watching some if not all of the hearings, and people are moved. The hearings are very well done. The committee has made them interesting and fast moving to hold people’s attention. Other Americans who are in the Trump sphere barely know that the hearings are happening because the news sources they listen to are either completely ignoring the hearings or are downplaying their significance as another attack by the liberal left.
During the Watergate Hearings, there were three major television networks and PBS, and they all were covering the hearings. Today, of course, you choose the news source to give you what you want to hear. And then there is social media and the internet which has both accurate news, but also a lot of misinformation and outright lies including the Big Lie.
Our U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, for example, who admitted on video that Trump lost Wisconsin because 51,000 people who voted Republican down ballot did not vote for Trump, continues to spread the Big Lie. But even after this video went viral, Johnson can continue to spread the big lie that Trump won Wisconsin because of the help from Fox News and other rightwing media and, of course, social media and the internet. Amazing.
So, What Now?
First, the committee needs to continue to drill down on what really happened and continue the hearings as long as more information keeps coming to light and more key witnesses become willing to speak. We need the truth. We also need to understand that there are somewhere in the range of 25-30% of the population that are Trump true believers who will support him no matter what he did. As Trump stated back in 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?”
But for the Republican and independent voters we know who are open to facts, we need to bring them along with questions. For example, if Trump is right that he won and won by a landslide, and he was the president and commander in chief who controlled most of the levers of power and not simply the challenger, why couldn’t he have just set the record straight and show the world that he won? Or if this was a big conspiracy against him, why is it that it is his appointees and staff that are explaining to the committee that he lost the election and he promoted the insurrection?
If you talk in declarative sentences that end in a period, you are apt to get into an argument. If you talk in interrogative sentences that end in a question mark, you might begin to get a person thinking so you can have a rational discussion. If we can get decent, honest Republican voters to begin to question, American democracy will have a strong future.
Louis Fortis
