Seeing out 2020 was one thing. Getting through 2021 will be a whole ‘nother problem. Especially when there are people out there with more fuel and a new box of matches. And they’re standing next to the dumpster fire we hoped we had put out on New Year’s Day.
Not even seven days into 2021, most of America was horrified to learn that an armed mob had stormed the Capitol. And not a random mob, roaming Washington, D. C., irate because the New Year’s Eve rave had finally closed down. No, this was a mob of Trumpist Republicans, determined to breach the doors of Congress and halt the counting of electoral college votes. They planned to bully any lawmakers they found into discarding the votes that gave Joe Biden the presidency in November.
We know this was their intent because it’s what the sitting president, Donald Trump, told them to do. As I’ve already pointed out, the legal term for attempting to abridge a Constitutionally guaranteed right is sedition. And depending on what you incite your followers to do, your goal might be described as insurrection.
Don’t take my word for it. Mitt Romney, a not-particularly lovable Republican politician who once said “corporations are people,” called it as he saw it. The New York Times quoted him thusly:
“Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and a former presidential candidate, was even more outspoken.
‘We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride,” he said when the chamber reconvened after the attack, “and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.’ ”
I learned this was happening on my car radio, driving to visit my mother. For once, I was relieved Mom was having a sleepy day. I don’t think she quite grasped what the wild images streaming across the house television meant, the audio on ‘mute.’
Even when I returned home, I couldn’t sit still to watch the appalling scenes on my laptop screen. I turned to my radio and NPR instead. As I listened, I scoured my bathroom, cleaned the cats’ litter boxes, and hoisted garbage bags to the front door. (Is there a pattern there?) Mary Louise Kelly’s voice grew wearier but remained resolutely calm as the afternoon’s special coverage wore on past dark.
But 2021 fell apart sooner than January 6
People took the first Sunday of 2021 to nurse a hangover, turn over a new leaf, take down holiday decorations. Some folks held virtual gatherings with friends they couldn’t meet in person due to the pandemic. Others chatted with people they wouldn’t have thought to greet had it not been for the pandemic making them Zoom experts.
I suppose many of us went about our business on January 3 without giving the president or the elections a lot of thought. It was last year’s drama! I tidied the kitchen and folded laundry listening to the Sunday afternoon edition of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
In hindsight, I’m glad I wasn’t polishing wineglasses. I would surely have dropped what I was holding when I heard the lead story. The American president, recorded live on a telephone line, tried to twist the arm of Georgia state elections officials. His unmistakeable voice said “just find me just 11,800 votes.”
That’s one more than he needed to match Joe Biden’s winning number of votes.
What you get when facts no longer matter
NPR is, of course, not the only source of diligent, detailed and careful reporting of these two political events. We know about the insurrection at the Capitol because the proceedings of Congress were diligently recorded and broadcast for TV. Not just because the event is a matter of record, but also because dozens of Republican legislators promised (or threatened) to produce TV-friendly drama to warm the president’s heart.
They loudly proclaimed beforehand that they planned to halt the proceedings as many times as they could. You can read about their cynical attempts to object to states’ electoral votes at The Guardian and the Washington Post.
“Republican officials claimed they were merely asking questions about the election system’s integrity. There’s so much distrust that they had to investigate now! Never mind that Trump and other GOP cranks had sown the distrust themselves. … Some even explicitly advocated use of force, with Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) saying after an unfavorable court ruling that “violence in the streets” might be the only option left to prevent Biden’s inauguration.
“Not all of their followers understood these cosplay coup attempts to be purely performative.”
Honest reporting when trust is earned
Something else makes the NPR coverage of the president’s nefarious phone call with Brad Raffensperger special for me. After the dust settled, the nation’s radio station went out of its way to explain its editorial process. The public editor’s detailed story introduced Stephen Fowler, a local reporter with Georgia Public Broadcasting. Fowler had spent years learning about his state’s elections processes. He spent months interviewing local and state authorities, demonstrating by honest reporting that he was trustworthy.
And so, when the president threw Georgia’s state elections officials under the bus, as is his wont, they knew just who to turn to, to tell their side of the story.
Aren’t you glad that reporter was there to listen?
Banner photo by Eugene Shelestov from Pexels