What to make of January 6th, 2021?

This is a tricky and dangerous subject to write about, but I’ll attempt it anyway.

I condemn the attack on the Capitol and I whole-heartedly condemn Trump’s abject failure to take vigorous action against the attack on Jan. 6. In my opinion, his dereliction of duty that day disqualifies him from ever again serving as our nation’s president or in any other capacity as a representative of the American people.

Every American can and should condemn the January 6th attack on the Capitol, whether one is a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, whether one considers it to have been a protest, a demonstration gone awry, a riot, an insurrection, an attempted coup, or something else entirely. It should never have happened, and something like it should never be allowed to happen again.

Did the Jan. 6th attack ever seriously endanger people inside the Capitol building – elected officials and staff? Yes, I believe so. Did the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol ever seriously threaten to overthrow the federal government? No, I don’t believe so. Were we in danger that day of losing our democracy? I think not. This was no Shays’ rebellion, no Civil War. The antifa mob that attacked the police station in Seattle was better organized, better armed, and clearer about its purpose than was the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol building. And, not incidentally, the Seattle police never shot a single person who violently attacked their police station.

What can’t be denied is that many Republicans, including many of those who assaulted the Capitol, were misled into believing that the election was stolen. That misimpression still needs to be corrected, and doing so will require a lot of time, commitment, and hard work. It’s a difficult task for the GOP to take upon itself, but I believe that, in the long run, telling the truth about Trump’s genuine loss in 2020 will better serve Republican ambitions – and certainly the nation as a whole – than will perpetuating an election myth.

Nor can it be denied that some Democrats see the January 6th attack as an opportunity to gain electoral advantage over Republicans in the ’22 and ’24 elections. That should come as no surprise to anyone. It’s what political parties do – both political parties. They try to take advantage of recent events in order to win elections and increase their power. And, in this particular case, regarding the events of January 6, Democrats attempt to do that by simplifying complex sets of circumstances, by ascribing specific, sinister motives to people who may have acted entirely for different reasons than those they are accused of, and by presenting disparate sets of actions of numerous individuals as the execution of complex but coordinated, planned-out strategies.

I voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, and I think the country probably would be better off today if Trump had been re-elected. But he lost his bid for re-election. Trump lost and Biden won. That was the electoral outcome and I accept it. Trump was our president. Now Biden is.

One more aspect of the tragic events of Jan. 6 deserves to be more thoroughly aired at some point. The Capitol police failed to protect the Capitol that day. They did not succeed in turning back the protesters, and at some point they moved external barriers aside and let the building be stormed by a mob that should never have been allowed in. And one of those foolish attackers in the mob, an unarmed woman who assaulted a barricaded door – but not a person – was shot dead, without having received a “stop or I’ll shoot” warning. Could the assault into the Capitol building have been prevented by the Capitol police taking more assertive action? Could the attackers have been stopped without the use of lethal force? I would like those questions answered by someone who doesn’t have a vested interest in the outcome of an investigation.

The Capitol police is an interested party. The Biden administration is an interested party. The Democratic majority in Congress is an interested party. The GOP is definitely an interested party. And therefore I don’t trust them to conduct an impartial and objective investigation. Nor do I trust the self-serving conclusions they are most likely to reach.

January 6th was an ugly day, a stain on our democratic process. I hope that we, as a nation, can find a way to learn from that ugliness, a way that will, in the long run, serve all Americans.