https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBbw32Wvig
Referred Article:
https://mariannewilliamson.substack.com/p/january-6
January 6
What Really Happened
Today didn’t quite sit right with me.
Yes, the events of January 6th last year were horrifying, even criminal. Policemen trying to protect our democracy lost their lives. People used violence to try to stop a free and fair election. All that is terrible, none of it should have happened, and today is certainly a day to rededicate ourselves to our democracy.
But today’s commemorative events did nothing to address the deeper fissures in our society. The event itself, like Donald Trump himself, was the symptom of a deeper cause. And until we address that cause, then all the rapturous expressions of how much we love our democracy will be little more than clanging cymbals. Healing words mean nothing if they basically mean nothing.
Our democracy wasn’t just attacked on January 6; our democracy is attacked every day of the week, and has been for the last forty years. The real “attack on our democracy” wasn’t just one event that took place a year ago; it’s the larger pattern of legalized bribery that’s destroying our democracy from the inside. Every time resources of hope and opportunity are transferred from the many to the few, our democracy is attacked. The main point of attack is the systemic corruption that goes on in that Capitol building every single day.
This is not a time in our lives to pussyfoot around the truth. It’s not a time in our history to allow our devotion to something as ultimately meaningless as a political party to blind us to the truth of our circumstances. The real dichotomy in American politics is not between the Right and the Left; it’s between the powerful and the powerless. The political-media industrial complex, headquartered in both parties, has created the Left-Right culture wars to distract Americans from the truth of who and what actually oppresses them. Our fellow citizens are not our enemy. Greed is our enemy. Abusive power is our enemy. Injustice is our enemy. Unfettered corporate influence is our enemy.
And those are the things that have been attacking our democracy. Many of the people who so sanctimoniously sang democracy’s praises today, standing on the Capitol steps with those stupid fake candles in their hands, are for all practical purposes but handmaidens to democracy’s enemies. No legislator who takes money from Big Pharma or Insurance companies; gun manufacturers, Big Chem or Big Ag; Big Oil or the MIC has any right to call themselves a defender of our democracy. Not today, and not any day. Nor does it matter any more that they don’t see that. We do.
Today should have been commemorated with more than show tunes, though God knows the image is perfect. Performance…mere performance. It should have been commemorated with the expansion of medicare, the cancellation of the college loan debt, raising the minimum wage, or creating free college for all. It should have been commemorated by acts that addressed the despair of millions of Americans. It should have been commemorated by something – something, anything at all – which proves that anyone who works in that building has even a clue why things are so bad.
The only way to fortify our democracy is to use it once again for the purpose for which it exists: to serve the people, not just the elite; the many, not just the few; and those who need it most, not just those who pull the strings of government to line their pockets at the expense of others. As long as attacks are coming from the inside, we’ll always be at risk of more attacks from the outside. As long as there’s so much pathology inside the building, our democracy will not be safe.
Thanks, Gwyllm. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Although the opening of this essay was gripping, ultimately it wound down to slogans, albeit refined slogans.
Williamson ignores some inconvenient facts: Trump was elected by our democratic system because, at the end of the day, he got more of our fellow citizens to support him than supported Hilary Clinton. We ignore at our peril that an enormous number of voters voted for Trump *again*, and his supporters have effectively hamstrung Biden’s agenda. Like it or not, this is our democracy in action.
Our toxic political culture might be changed to some degree by lengthening the term of office in the House, and instigating real campaign finance reform, but that won’t make the anti-democratic forces that came out from under their slimy rocks during the Trump administration—or Trump himself—see the light, or change their tune.
I agree with much of what Williamson says. But the problems of corruption and social injustice have been with us here in North America since 1619. What is different today is that those who deny the basic predicate of our system of governance, that all people are created equal, are getting a ruthless grip on the fundamental institutions by which the words of the Constitution are translated into social reality on the ground. And they are not in the mood for reforming the status quo.
Are liberals up to being ruthless? Look at Mitch McConnell’s ruthless, bald-faced hypocrisy with respect to the Senate’s responsibilities with respect to the courts, famously including the Supreme Court. In keeping with one of Williamson’s basic points, I don’t mean “are Democrats ruthless enough?,” I mean all of us, but it’s the politicians with a core of Enlightenment liberal values who are now in the crucible.
I wish I could say that we are. I think it’s going to take an extended constitutional crises for moderate Republicans and right-leaning Democrats to choose the common interest over what they perceive as their own interest. I will not be holding my breath.
Trump lost the popular vote. The Electoral College, put him over the top Michael.