American Democracy Is Dying — The Jan. 6 Committee Is Trying to Shock it Back to Life
Imagine a crash cart. Ever watch a medical show? Charging…3…2…1…bzzz. The patient’s back suddenly arches. Their limbs flail. A thousand volts surge through their nervous system. Did it work?
Now you check. Sinus rhythm.
American democracy’s dying. It’s a patient who suffered a violent attack on its life. And then it was kicked and beaten while it was down. Now it’s in the hospital. Its hemorrhaging. Its heart has stopped. Want to understand why the January 6th Committee and its findings matter? They’re the crash cart.
The Jan 6th Committee is wheeling the crash cart to the dying, paralyzed body of American democracy. They are hoping to electrify a democracy, with a thousand volts, after a bloody attack, a violent attempt that has left it dead on the hospital bed — and shock it back to life.
Will it work?
It’s easy to be cynical about it. The January 6th Committee told us what we already know — what’s the big deal? It’s not going to change anything! It’s easy to sneer, be contemptuous, throw one’s hands up at the whole exercise as a kind of charade, of too little, too late.
For once, though, I disagree. I’m probably one of the most outspoken critics of both sides of America’s failed, corrupt, broken politics there is. But when American democracy works, my friends, we should give it credit.
Why do the J6 Committee’s findings matter? There are several reasons, and each one is very, very important. So before you throw your hands up in cynicism, sit with me a moment and let’s talk about them.
An Audience of One
Did you see how methodically the committee laid out the evidence of an “attempted coup” — led by a “conspiracy”? I believe the word “criminal” was even used. Did you see how they literally said: “Donald Trump was at the center” of it? There’s a fellow named Merrick Garland. He’s currently the attorney general of the United States. He doesn’t seem like a bad fellow, but he does seem like, let me put this bluntly, a bit of a coward.
Garland hasn’t exactly parachuted into the hellfire and fought like a bastard on the beaches of Normandy. He’s been weirdly, visibly reluctant to really do justice for Jan 6th. The foot soldiers have gotten slaps on the wrist. A few have been made examples of — but mostly, the stance of the Justice Department under Garland has been apologetics. So sorry, but prosecuting sedition is hard. My man, everything is hard. Work is hard. I write a goddamned book every month here. Hard. Do your job! Garland is out of place. Instead of fighting for his country, he’s been hiding out in a foxhole, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they won’t get him.
Charging. 3,2,1. Shock.
The very first constituency the J6 Committee is trying to electrify into life, with a massive surge of life-savings voltage, is Merrick goddamned Garland. The attorney general of the United States at the most crucial time in its centuries of existence, period — after an attempted coup. Wait, can we say that now? Without being called alarmists? Wow, what a relief. The committee is trying to shake Garland out of his stupor, trying to slap him across the face for his bizarre reluctance. Garland’s like the guy who won’t ask the girl out…even though they’ve already been on four dates. He’s like the guy who runs away from a small white dog named Snowy because he barked a little bit…he’s afraid.
Garland is the kind of guy who, if there’s a technicality — he’ll use it as an excuse to throw his hands up and say, “but this is too hard! We can’t do it!” He’s something between a tantrum-baby and a stone statue at this point.
Over to You, Mr. Attorney General
The committee is throwing the ball squarely back in Garland’s court. Literally, pun fully intended. They are saying, hey, my man, this was your job, too. You don’t want to do it? Fine — we’ll do it. And when we’re done, you’re going to have no excuse left. Not to prosecute. Not just the foot soldiers, with wrist slaps. But the ring leaders — with the most serious charges there are. If you can’t prosecute that case — the United States of America versus the Coup Led by a President — then what the hell good are you?
That is essential work. Garland is scared for a very good reason. He fears retaliation and consequences from the Republicans — who barely approved of him ever. Instead of doing his job, he’s wondering what he can get away with, and not be bullied, intimidated and harassed by them.
But for an attorney general at the most critical time in American history, that’s not good enough. The January 6th Committee is throwing a gauntlet down — not just to Trump, or his conspiracy, or even his base — but to the attorney general who won’t do his job. They’re saying prosecute this case — or be remembered as the man who let American democracy die.
Will that work? Nobody can really say. Garland is a consummate DC figure at this point. Remember how Rome’s elites just let it…burn…at the hands of Nero and Caligula and Commodus? Garland reminds me of them. Why he won’t do his job the way it should be done — instead of giving wrist-slaps to foot-soldiers — is jaw-dropping to the rest of the world. He’s letting the ringleaders of an attempt on American democracy’s life get away with it. The J6 Committee is holding him to account.
That matters, and it matters intensely. Because if the J6 Committee can move Merrick Garland to prosecute the biggest case in American history — The United States of America versus Donald J. Trump — imagine the consequences.
No, you can’t just get away with something this insane, monstrous and historic — a violent, bloody coup attempt at the Capitol, led by a sitting president, trying to overturn an election. What’s likely to happen? The country will be electrified. There will be a sense that maybe democracy matters again.
The Democrats desperately need to shore up their sagging political fortunes. Their fortunes are sagging for very good reasons. They haven’t delivered. On much of anything. Their own internal dissemblers have blocked every attempt they’ve made to do anything, hence the feeling is, quite rightly, that the Democrats “don’t do anything.” This is doing something.
Let me say it again.
A Very Big Deal
The United States of America versus the President who Attempted a Coup would be the biggest case in American history. And it’s a necessary one. It would electrify the nation and do a very great deal to restore the Democrats’ sagging political fortunes. Let me put that another way.
Who do the Democrats — an d what sane Republicans are left — really have to “convince”? Who is the J6 Committee’s work for? It’s not the Trumpist base. They’re a lost cause. It’ll take a generation or three for their sanity to be restored, if ever. Sure, let them have Texas or what have you — no biggie.
The second constituency, after Merrick Garland, that the J6 Committee is squarely targeting is what are known in America as “independent voters.” They tend to lean heavily Republican, for historical reasons, like a classically American distrust of government. And the third one is apathetic voters, who don’t turn out — like young people, all the way down the generations, from Gen X to Zoomers.
How do you save American democracy from imminent collapse? Because if the Republicans win over the next few years, that’s it, game over. You have to — have to — mobilize these constituencies. Even if you can turn them out by just a few incremental points, then you will do the job of preventing full-on American democratic collapse for another few years. This is the real task of the J6th Committee.
Some people are apathetic about the J6th Committee because they think “it won’t matter.” Those people misunderstand the game that must be played here. The job here is not persuading the 30% of Americans who are the hardcore Trumpist base and believe in the Big Lies, from “the election was stolen” to “there’s a great replacement of us!!” (LOL, ever hear of…the Native Americans?). They will always vote for the most noxious lunatic demagogue there is around. The job here is to turn out what’s left of sane America.
Let me say that again, too. The job here is to turn out what’s left of sane America. If you can do that, there is a slender thread of hope. There are more than enough sane Americans left to try to stop it from further, even more ruinous, worse-than-the-Trump-era collapse for a while yet. But the problem is they don’t vote. They’re not interested in politics. For many of them, like young people, Marvel Movies and Instagram are numbing agents, and democracy is an exercise in frustration and futility. They need to be woken from their stupor and get back to the hard work of self-governance again. They need to not just “vote” but run for office, enact norms of decency, set rules and boundaries — not let the lunatics take over.
Buzz. Charging. Shock.
Sinus rhythm.
I liken the January 6th Committee to a crash cart because that is what it is.
I used to say this about Jan 6th. It’s almost never that democracies get a second chance. Usually, violent, sophisticated coups succeed. Everyone from presidential historians to the top military brass agrees — it’s a minor miracle American democracy survived that day. It was just a handful of brave cops standing in the way — plus the incompetence and ineptitude of the attackers. But if they’d succeeded in “hanging Mike Pence”? Doing god knows what in the Chamber? Game over.
A Second Chance
American democracy got something nations almost never, ever get. A second chance. The gods were smiling that day, as bloody and terrible as it was. This will not happen here, they said. It didn’t.
But since then, that second chance has been squandered. The Democrats have done nothing, basically, to the frustration of every sane American left. They’ve let two or three internal rogue agents block literally rebuilding the nation, crazily enough. And in that vacuum of despair and chaos, the Republicans’ fanaticism hasn’t just grown — it’s poised to win.
American democracy is dying. This is the crash cart.
Can the Jan 6th Committee shock American democracy back to life?
I hope so, my friends, I really do.