The subject of protecting democracy was front and center this morning as the President and Vice-President of the United States took to the podium in Statuary Hall to lay down some political markers using the events of the mass trespass of Jan. 6, 2021. It must be said that all law-abiding citizens condemn the actions of a few hundred misguided and angry men and women who took it upon themselves to illegally enter the Capitol Building and create havoc within its walls one year ago today.
Their mass trespass accomplished much during the early afternoon hours of Jan. 6. Unfortunately, those "accomplishments" did more to set back the efforts of American rapprochement more than any other single event in recent memory. It gave the Democrat opposition another brickbat to beat supporters of Donald Trump over the head with. It also placed a permanent red circle around a date on America's calendar as a regularly-scheduled opportunity for the Left to harangue all Republicans for the transgressions of a few activists who decided to take the law into their own hands.
This one-year mark of that date should have been a teachable moment for America and the President had the perfect opportunity to be the teacher-in-chief. Instead, he chose to lash out at President Trump and used the majority of his twenty minutes to repeatedly attack him for his part in the Jan. 6 'insurrection.' Make no mistake, Biden's speech was an unabashed political attempt to permanently sully the reputation of the former President and prevent him from re-surfacing as the Republicans' candidate for President in 2024.
Biden's speech was crafted to emphasize his own machismo and to portray himself and his party as the unifying force that will protect democracy from authoritarianism. The irony of that statement hit me like a jack-knifing 18-wheeler on black ice. That Joe Biden, the enforcer-in-chief of vaccination mandates and the man who would rather see members of the military and especially health care workers fired from their jobs during a pandemic because of their unwillingness to be vaccinated, should be talking about somebody else's authoritarianism. What hubris!
The President's handlers and consultants basically determined that writing a "tough guy" speech that castigated Donald Trump would help reverse Biden's poll number slide from its current under-50% territory. The speech will also help the heavily partisan Democrat Congressional Jan. 6 Committee as it continues on its public path to lay further blame for the "insurrection" on Donald Trump and impact Republicans' chances on winning back Congressional seats in the upcoming mid-term election.
Both the President and Vice-President linked the trespass to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, events which cost thousands of American lives. This was a despicable linkage, especially insofar as no mass casualties were incurred. Regrettably, there was one fatality, an unarmed woman who was killed by a Capitol Police officer who is yet to be identified.
Did the President's and Vice-President's words today serve to heal the wounds from Jan. 6? Were they a unifying attempt to bring both sides of the political divide together or did they do the opposite and widen the gap between the 74.2 million people who voted for Trump and the 81 million who voted for Biden? Did they win over any Conservatives to their side or change any minds? I doubt it. Those who supported Donald Trump will probably still support him. And their support could be even more intense given the nature of Biden's direct frontal attack on him.
Democrats will do what they always do and fall into line behind their leaders, and we can expect more such attacks on Trump supporters from the usual suspects in the House along with two prominent RINOs (Republicans in name only): Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. The closer we get to the mid-term elections, efforts to divide Republicans into two camps (forever Trumpers and never Trumpers) will intensify. The only thing missing today from the Jan. 6 hyperbole of the President and/or Vice-President was a "day that will live in infamy" quote. Take heart those of you yearning for a little Rooseveltian nostalgia; there are still plenty of shoes left to drop in the "Capitol insurrection drama," and that could be one of them.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of twelve books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,200 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website, www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
