American Politics

The Key Piece that is Being Ignored at The January 6th Hearings

It’s the biggest problem (this week)

I am not American and I’ve never wanted to be, but I have traveled to and in the United States many times. In fact, besides my home country, the US is probably the foreign country in which I have spent the most time. I’ve always enjoyed being there, even if the place has me scratching my head often enough.

Rather, I am from a country that at the same time has both an inferiority complex and a superiority complex with regard to its neighbor to the south. I understand why this dichotomy exists, but I’ve never been able to adequately explain it.

For instance, like most Canadians, I feel confident that I know more about the American system of government than Americans do about ours. For some reason, this is a concern for many of us.

We don’t have congressional hearings in Canada. We don’t have a Congress. We have a completely different system of government, for better or for worse. Yet, I think I know what the purpose of congressional hearings is and in a perfect world, what they are designed to achieve.

But the world is far from perfect, no one will need telling. As a result, there is a key piece missing from this particular process to get to the bottom of events on January 6, 2021, and the breathless media coverage emanating from it.

It is the inescapable fact that there is a significant percentage of the American public that believes that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and that the storming of the Capitol was justified. To them, the January 6 hearings are a sham, organized and carried out as a piece of opportunistic political theatre by Democrats, liberals, left-wing pinkos, and anyone else they hate, to silence what they perceive as their legitimate voices and constitutionally guaranteed pathways to dissent.

They are being told this by Trump-loyal Republicans and the media outlets that do their bidding.

The talking heads on Fox News, meanwhile, are doing everything they can to change the subject, insisting that instead, our attention should be on inflation, gas prices, or the war in Ukraine. They’d rather talk about a new caravan of migrants that has shown up at the border, right on time. Anything to shift the focus away from the proceedings, which of course they aren’t showing on their network. Sean Hannity wouldn’t have it any other way — probably because he knows the likelihood of his own name coming up shortly in the deliberations.

Liz Cheney, seemingly unaware of this (though of course, she is not), heroically took her GOP colleagues to task in her opening statement, admonishing them that “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain”. She speaks to them as an old guard, establishment Republican, from the principled high ground that she occupies and with the gravitas, duty, and moral obligation that her father was never bothered by.

She speaks to them as though democracy in the USA hangs in the balance.

She speaks to them about the dangers of sweeping this under the rug.

She speaks to them as though they are listening.

They are not.

Most of them believe that no matter what “truths” the process gets to the bottom of, it will be politically motivated and they will not accept its findings. Whether they believe that in their heart of hearts is beside the point. If they speak out in favor of the findings they will be dealt a serious blow to their chances of reelection and therefore the feed trough of donations and lobbyists that they line their pockets with.

That’s the hold that Trump continues to have on the GOP. Despite the fact that he has beaten Americans over the head for decades with his criminality, he is still in charge.

How many examples in world history are there of someone leading his party in a coup attempt, failing at it, and then getting another chance for another crack at it?

Ah yes, one does instantly spring to mind.

Some of the GOP congresspeople called to testify by the Select Committee feel so empowered as to be able to ignore subpoenas. They are thumbing their noses at the law and the ability of the legal system to do anything about it. The logical conclusion of some of their constituents is, well, if they can do that, why can’t I?

I don’t think it’s quite been grasped the sheer number of Trump supporters who have been convinced that this process is an illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional conspiracy and who will also not accept whatever findings that this search for the truth uncovers. The chances that they will quietly submit to whatever consequences are meted out (after a trial, presumably) to the perpetrators of the January 6th attempted coup are slim and none.

It does look like the blocks are being put in place for the prosecution of Trump and this should not be flinched at.

But what then? We’ve seen what his supporters are capable of and that they failed only barely at it. Indeed they are preparing to try again.

What then?

I really do hope that you like what you have just read. If you want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It will set you back $5 a month and if you use this link, then I get a slice of that and it will go towards taking a day off work to watch the Orange Menace stand trial one day.