David N. Cicilline - House on Fire: Fighting for Democracy in the Age of Political Arson

It was one year since a mob of more than one thousand attacked the United States Capitol and began a bloody three-hour battle to overturn the 2020 election and keep Americas first authoritarian president in power. On a somber day of remembrance, I listened to the prayers and testimony of colleagues who survived the attack and then gathered in the early-morning hours to fulfill their duty to certify the end of one presidency and the beginning of another.

This day of reflection was full of grief, fear, and hope. We grieved the officers who died as a result of the attack as well as the injuriesphysical, psychological, and moralsuffered by those of us who were at the Capitol during the battle and a nation that witnessed it on television. We feared the deformed politics of a former presidents Big Lie about election fraud, which his party fully promotes. And we hoped our fellow citizens would heed President Bidens call to defend democracy.

On the anniversary of January 6, President Joe Biden issued the call as part of his first full response to the antidemocracy movement begun by his predecessor and taken up by the Republican Party. Uncharacteristically blunt, Biden said of the mob, They didnt come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in ragenot in service of America, but rather in service of one man. Later, before ending on a note of hope, he said, I did not seek this fight brought to this Capitol one year ago today, but I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy.

Throughout the day, grief, fear and hope mingled in my heart: grief as I met the parents of Officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the attack; hope as I heard the remarks of beloved colleagues; fear as I noted that House Republicans, with a lone exception, failed to attend the days events. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, that one exception, was accompanied by her father, the former vice president Dick Cheney. She and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (absent this day due to the imminent arrival of his first child) are the only Republicans who have agreed to serve on a commission investigating January 6. I consider Liz a pro-democracy hero. Back home in Wyoming, state leaders have declared she is no longer a Republican.

Across the country one of our two major parties is all but united in its effort to erase the violence and the purpose of the January 6 attack from our memories. This process began immediately as, on January 7, Republican members of Congress Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, and Mo Brooks baselessly blamed the insurrection on anti-Trump provocateurs. Although this idea was thoroughly debunked, Republican Senator Ron Johnson and others continued to spread it. Representative Andrew Clyde, also a Republican, said these violent domestic terrorists appeared, to him, like individuals on a normal tourist visit.

Of course, people on a normal tourist visit dont attack the police with clubs, bear spray, and Tasers. They dont ransack the Capitol while chanting Hang [Vice President] Mike Pence or occupy the Senate to prevent the certification of an election. The rioters of January 6 did all these things, but by the summer of 2021, Republicans were calling those who had been arrested political prisoners.

By fall, pollsters found that about a third of Republicans believe we are so far off track that patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. Applause affirmed the comments of a man at a conference of political conservatives who asked, How many elections are they gonna steal before we kill these people? By winter a poll found that 79 percent of Republicans dont accept Bidens seven-million-vote victory in the countrys most secure election ever.

The current myth that American elections are stolen goes back to at least 2010, when Republican state officials began a concerted effort to use false claims of fraud to support rules that made voting harder for people they suspected of being Democrats. (Think Black and brown people in big cities.) Donald Trump jumped on the bandwagon in 2012 but turned up the volume to ten in the run-up to Election Day 2016. The system is absolutely rigged, he declared. Of course there is large-scale voter fraud happening on and before Election Day. Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive.

Trump wouldnt promise to accept the election results, as all previous candidates had, and election officials girded for trouble. When he actually won, they breathed a sigh of relief, but he kept on insisting our elections were corrupt. It became obvious then that he was trying to destroy his followers faith in the very foundation of our democracy while establishing himself as the source of truth in all things. He proceeded then to attack our allies and the other branches of government and insisted there was a mythical Deep State within his own administration bent on thwarting him.

Having listened and believed as their man lied and distorted the truth at least thirty thousand times during his presidency, millions of Trumps supporters decided they were entitled to their own facts and truth, which he supplied and which were reinforced in the fever swamps of the internet. These supporters were not, by and large, people who lived on the margins of society. Most were white, middle- and upper-middle-class people who were vulnerable to conspiracy theories that explained their frustrations and drove them away from reliable sources of information. In short, they were the desperate sort you might find joining a get-rich-quick pyramid sales scheme or an overly controlling faith group. Among the Trump believers they found the warmth of community and the excitement that comes with thinking you possess special knowledge.

Millions of committed Trumpists were ready to accept his claim of fraud, and the vanguard responded to their presidents call by joining the January 6 mob. A year later, as we marked the sober anniversary of this event, Republican leaders everywhere embraced the Trump-was-cheated myth as an article of faith, which meant they no longer believed that they lived in a functioning democracy. With Trump planning a comeback, the GOP under his thumb, and campaign donations pouring into his political organization, we face greater political peril than at any time since the Civil War.