Today was the first day of my criminal law at white necklace at the George Washington University Law School. We had to meet on Zoom because the snow here in DC closed a large part of the city.
He remembered my class four years ago, shortly after January 6, 2021. We also met on Zoom, as we did for all this semester because of Covid. And we had just seen the most serious inner attack against our country since the civil war.
Despite all the lighting of gas in recent years, January 6, 2021 was not a peaceful demonstration of “patriots”. It was a violent attack on democracy by a crowd seeking to reverse a free and fair election. More than a hundred law enforcement agents have been injured; Later, many died. The Capitol building was damaged and profane. Congress members were forced to flee for their lives. And our future president prompted the crowd, then sat down and watched it all happen for three hours without lifting their finger to cancel it.
The attack was not carried out by immigrants, or “awake” the liberals, or the Muslims, or the trans persons, or one of the other groups that the Republicans say that you should fear. It was produced by Trump’s own people after calling them to descend to Washington on his behalf. Good old local and red blood – almost all white, mainly male. About a thousand of them were found guilty of crimes related to the riot.
It was not only a demonstration that became uncontrollable. It was the violent culmination of an effort of several weeks to cancel a legal presidential election. This effort included the filing of dozens of frivolous proceedings, urging state officials to break the law and violating their oaths, sending false presidential voters to Washington with false documents, putting pressure on the vice-president to violate his constitutional obligations and spread lies on electoral fraud that continues to undermine confidence in our elections. He came very, very close to succeeding.
I remember talking to my students during this course shortly after January 6, and how shaken they were. Most of us were shaken at the time, including many Republican leaders. Surely, we all thought that the man responsible for this will never be entrusted to power again. But now these Republicans have largely fallen online behind their leader. They would simply like to forget on January 6 or claim that it never happened, or argue that it was not a big problem. Trump will probably forgive many people convicted of crimes that day, to suggest that what they did was somehow justified – his last stroke in the rule of law.
Today, the certification of election results has been peaceful. Vice-president Harris confirmed his opponent’s victory during a brief almost superficial ceremony. This is the kind of procedure he was always, up to four years ago. This is what adults who believe in our democracy do, even if they lost an election that they wanted to win. The peaceful transfer of power has been a characteristic of our country and the desire for the world for over 200 years.
But if Trump had lost the elections, which knows what would have happened today.
I do a legal analysis here, not a political analysis. But here is the thing: it should not be political. Some – too little – high -level republicans, like Liz Cheney, recognize it. Devotion to our free elections, peaceful transfer of power and standards as the rule of law should be fundamental basic principles and not negotiable for all Americans, whatever the political party.
Here is what derives me more than anything else in the past eight years. I can understand republican or conservative policies in favor – most of them anyway. I could even agree with some of them. But I will never understand why on January 6 was not a contract contract for almost everyone, whatever your policy. I will never understand how someone could vote to put the man behind this assault on our country in the White House. His own vice-president and most of his cabinet said he should never see the interior of the Oval office again. But half of the country there, and now in two weeks, he will be the most powerful man in the world again.
One of the great ironies of all this is that Trump supporters claim to love our country. But they support a man who has only shown contempt for the United States and his most sacred institutions. He only loves power and himself.
When I spoke with my students four years ago, we discussed how the good news was that the institutions of our democracy had resisted the assault. They were seriously tested, but they did not break. In the end, the integrity of our elections was confirmed, the transfer of power took place and Trump left his duties. But we also talked about how these institutions are fragile and cannot be held for granted. January 6 showed us how easily they could be lost.
The next four years will be difficult and potentially dangerous. We must continue to resist, to defend democracy and the rule of law. And anything else in the future, we must continue to defend the truth of what happened on January 6, 2021. We cannot let them rewrite and disinfect this story. We have seen it with our own eyes – and we will not forget.
