A Liberal
Dose
January 5,
2023
Troy D.
Smith
“January 6: A Day That Will Forever Live in Infamy”
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of one of the low
points of American history. A lot of people who supported Donald Trump might
not want to think so; they may wish people would stop talking about it. They
may change the channel, especially when news programs show the actual (and
shocking) footage of that day. They may say everyone is exaggerating the
violence of that event -or that it should not count as an insurrection, because
only a handful of people died.
But guess what. History teachers are still talking about
Shays’ Rebellion (1786) and the Whiskey Rebellion (1791). Only nine people died
in the former, and only four or five in the latter. We do not talk about them
because of the magnitude of death and destruction that occurred, but because of
the magnitude of their historical significance. Shays’ Rebellion led indirectly
to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated
(to the country and to the world) that the government created by that
Constitution had the authority, will, and power to suppress violent actions
against the Constitution, the government, and the law. All three of which, by
the way, perfectly describe the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
Except, in the case of the January rebellion, it was the
president himself who instigated, encouraged, and allowed the violence directed
against both his own executive branch (in the person of his vice-president, who
came within a hair’s-breadth of assassination) and the whole legislative
branch. The House Select Committee investigating the attack, who have recently
released their interview transcripts, uncovered a breathtaking array of
evidence that our authoritarian ex-President intentionally stirred up his
fervent followers to stop the Constitutionally mandated certification of the
election, or at least delay it long enough for some of his other schemes with
the same purpose to come to fruition. One of the most frightening disclosures
of the transcripts is that the Pentagon refused to send troops in to quell the
riot out of fear that, if they were that close to the action, the president
would illegally order them to help the rioters overthrow the government chosen
by a majority of the American people. Fittingly enough, Trump started his
presidency with a warning of “American carnage,” and ended it by delivering it.
On the day itself, my pro-Trump friends were
uncharacteristically quiet. It was virtually impossible to defend the carnage
while it was unspooling live on television. I believed at the time they were
overcome by shame, and maybe (hopefully) they were. Within a few days, though
-following the Trump doctrine of denying that the past happened -they were
minimizing or excusing the whole thing.
But the truth is -and this is why January 6 will be talked
about by historians for centuries to come -that day (like the Whiskey
Rebellion) was a major testing of constitutional democracy. It could have gone
very differently -and if Trump had installed the type of hyper-loyal-constitutionally-averse-authoritarian
staff he no doubt would install in a second administration, it would have.
For those of us paying attention, the months leading up to
the 2022 midterms were almost as frightening. A whole slew of Trump-backed
candidates were on the slate who, had they won, would have been situated to
change the results of the next election in Trump’s favor. Thankfully, almost
all those candidates in swing states lost, demonstrating that Trump was losing
some of his influence. This, in turn, led to the Republican establishment
finally feeling emboldened to buck The Orange One, and the conventional wisdom
now is that Trump will not be favored to win the nomination this time.
But he wasn’t favored to win the nomination in 2016, either.
Many thought it was impossible for him to do so, or to win the general
election. He has enough devoted followers to get the Republican spot. It’s
still an urgent necessity that we remember January 6.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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