Berl Falbaum
I am reading one of the saddest books I have ever read, and I have read many over my lifetime.
The book has a benign, subdued title, “The January 6th Report” — that’s it — which is superimposed over a shadowy, black silhouette of the U.S. Capitol’s dome.
Yes, it is the report on the 15-month investigation conducted by the House Select Committee on the insurrection that shook the country to its core.
It is as sad and as sorrowful as the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of President Kennedy, a summary that I read some six decades ago.
But there is a difference, a huge one, between these two devastating events. The assassination did not threaten our democracy. The assassination was the work of a deranged lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, and its immediate aftermath proved democracy’s resiliency and the country’s uncompromising commitment to the uninterrupted peaceful transfer of power even in a time of a horrific national tragedy.
Who can forget the iconic photo of Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One only one hour and 38 minutes after the president was pronounced dead. Standing next to Johnson, of course, was Jacqueline Kennedy, still wearing her bloodstained pink suit.
If you watched all the Select Committee’s public hearings and followed the reports on the insurrection in the media, as I did, there is little new in the report although it includes thousands of additional details. But it is chilling to have it all recorded in 724 pages.
So how close did we come to losing what may well be the most unique and strongest democracy the world has ever seen?
In my view: Very close, too close. I believe we were but one appointment away from Trump’s goal to overturn the election and undermine the Constitution. That appointment involved Jeffrey Clark, a Trump acolyte who was prepared to do Trump’s bidding.
Trump planned to nominate Clark as the U.S Attorney General. Had the former president succeeded, Clark could then have appointed others of their ilk in the Justice Department and attorney general offices throughout the country.
Trump had to back down but only because he faced the threat of mass resignations in the DOJ if he proceeded with the appointment.
Scary stuff! We were lucky and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Select Committee, acknowledges in his epilogue of the book, “that we had some luck on our side…”
Setting aside the dark and potentially catastrophic picture painted in the report, one cannot but recognize that in the face of this grave danger, our institutions remained steadfast:
— The Capitol Police force held firm, refusing to be overrun by the insurrectionists even though it was seriously outnumbered.
— Congress certified the election and did so only hours after the attack on the Capitol.
— Hundreds of rioters have been arrested, some sentenced to long prison terms.
— Courts throughout the country, some with judges appointed by Trump, and the Supreme Court, ruled against Trump.
We need to be grateful that so many in positions of authority displayed the courage and the wisdom to recognize what was at stake.
But we cannot take such commitments for granted. What about “the next time?” What if those responsible for safeguarding our democracy are headed by Clarks?
Despite the conventional wisdom of the media that Trump’s support is ebbing, he remains a power in national politics and his base remains unmoved. A Trump loss is not guaranteed, and a win would surely spell the end of democracy.
David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize winning editor of The New Yorker magazine, says in the preface to the book, that it would be “foolish to count on” a Trump loss.
“Should he win back the White House, he will come to office with no sense of restraint,” Remnick says. “He will inevitably be an even more radical, more resentful, more chaotic, more authoritarian version of his earlier self.”
(In recent polls, Trump beats Biden 48-40 percent in a potential rematch for the presidency).
Bennie G. Thompson, the committee’s chairman (D-Miss.), writes in the foreword:
“If this Select Committee has accomplished one thing, I hope it has shed light on how dangerous it would be to empower anyone whose desire for authority comes before their commitment to American democracy and the Constitution.”
Raskin echoes those sentiments in the epilogue with the following:
“We need a plan to fortify American democratic institutions against future coups, insurrections, political violence and electoral subversion.”
If we are to accomplish the goals defined by Thompson and Raskin and assure a strong and healthy democratic future for America, we need to take the necessary steps to avoid another January 6 and the risk that it could prove successful.
We cannot afford to rely on luck.
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Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and the author of 12 books.
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