There is no denying that the events that transpired on Jan. 6, 2021 are going to go down as some of the most indelible moments in the history of our country.
While there is no shortage of horrific aspects of the insurrection, the most pernicious of all may be the aftermath and the subsequent events since that fateful day.
The insurrection marked the first non-peaceful transfer of executive power since the Civil War, which is not a particularly auspicious record to break. Instead of serving as a turning point in the country or an opportunity to reckon with the insanity of the last presidential term, the United States took to the other direction: greater division.
While Former President Donald Trump, whose voice only fanned the flames of political turmoil, is out of office, he left a taint on the Republican party. The impact of his word still plays out in the destruction of democracy; one year later, there are still cries from the right about the “big lie” and voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In fact, rather dubiously, the belief in a “stolen” election has only increased on the right since the election, despite the repeatedly debunked “evidence.” Trump filed over 50 lawsuits on the basis of voter fraud that were all rejected. Despite this, a study by Grinnell-Selzer shows that now, 60% of Republicans don’t believe that voting will be counted fairly during the 2022 midterm elections.
As a result, Republicans have used these sentiments to pass increasingly more restrictive voting laws by using Trump’s word as gospel. As of December 2021, over 440 new laws had been introduced, their aims being to limit absentee voting, increase costs, and impose voter ID laws. This country has much bigger issues to address than ones that don’t exist.
Another egregious byproduct of the insurrection is the normalization of threats against our politicians. In the wake of the event, Republican congressmen who were conflicted about whether or not to vote to impeach Trump received death threats against themselves and their families if they were to vote against their own party. In the first three months of 2021 alone, there were 4,315 threats reported against members of Congress.
For many extremists, witnessing those actually acting for the cause they support has apparently incentivized them to do the same. Not only have the numbers of those outwardly denying the election results increased, but studies show political violence has also increased in the past year. In fact, one poll showed that 62% of voters believed that the losing side in elections to come will react with violence. It’s appalling that being a politician in one of the most democratic nations in the world is a life-threatening job.
Congress’s January 6th Committee was specifically designed to investigate the attack; however, it has failed to come to a consensus or accomplish many of its goals over the past year, and much of this is due to resistance from Republicans. Few conservatives supported the committee in the first place, and instead, they continue to deny the need for the committee at all.
First-world countries are defined by their political and economic stability, democracy, and prosperity. If 60% of the Republican party does not believe in the integrity of our elections (when the outcomes aren’t in their favor), then we as a country are not politically democratic. If armed insurgents are charging our nation’s capital, then we as a country are not politically stable. If our politicians’ lives are being threatened for doing their job, then we as a country are not politically prosperous. If we as a nation turn our heads and don’t hold those who jeopardized our government accountable, then everything that the Founding Fathers worked to establish has been rendered meaningless.
