Investigation Leads Only One Way

It’s over six months since the storming of the Capitol and the near Reichstag moment for the American Republic. The House of Representatives investigative commission sat for the first time this week. The evidence they’ve heard has been chilling and a warning to the near future. If it hadn’t been for the bravery of most of the Capitol Hill Police, we could be in a very different situation today. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is supposed to have said the following: They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed. You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns’. Fears of a coup were justified, and not just the overactive imaginations of those with so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The testimony from the Capitol Police called to before the committee has been a stark reminder of the racism that spewed out onto the seats of government. None of those who stormed the Capitol were wearing a Biden hat. Biden voters don’t treat the President as some messianic figure. Nor do they, for the most part, imbue him with superhuman powers or to be divinely anointed. But the clear and present danger that is the fevered support out there for ‘the Former Guy’ is still a threat to the safety of the US, a menace both visible and under the radar.

The US media is already talking about Trump’s influence being on the wane. This is due to the significant Republican support in the Senate for Biden’s stimulus plan and the failure of a Trump-backed candidate in Texas in an internal GOP run-off, both in the same week. As this writer has stated repeatedly over recent years, the threat of 45, his fanatical followers, and Trumpism, should never be underestimated. A Pandora’s Box was opened in November 2016, and the contents of which will not easily be put back.

Capitol Policeman Harry Dunn is not a small man. But he felt fear when a mob hurling racist epithets attacked police officers defending the buildings on the Hill. His experience has traumatized him: How the **** can something like this happen?! Is this America?’ I began sobbing, and officers came over to console me.” Whereas the baying mob had a different attitude to DC Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who said they were trying to recruit him to let their rampage proceed. On that day, just over half a year ago, the Obama presidency must have seemed like it had never happened.

The courage and decency demonstrated by the testifying police officers stands in contrast to the minority of their colleagues who either turned a blind eye or materially assisted the rioters at the time of the insurrection. This will surely be investigated by the Commission. The response of the Trump-leaning FOP police union has been woefully inadequate in their condemnation of the attack, a deeply worrying sign as to the Trumpist capture of part of this arm of the state. The men and women who were on the frontline on January 6^th were exposed in a manner so brutal that collusion between elements and law enforcement must be investigated.

The Commission’s work will inevitably lead it back to the mastermind of Donald J Trump. There may not be a smoking gun of him directing the storming of the Capitol, but his incendiary statements and conduct as President led to those January events as sure as night follows day. Liz Cheney, who has to be given credit as a GOP representative prepared to be counted and stand up for democratic values, has stated that “We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House—every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during, and after the attack.” This can only lead one way.

Joe Biden is doing his best to reach out to Red America, and this week’s putative agreement on a stimulus plan is a massive achievement for him. He is still, though, very much aware of the threat facing democracy in the US. He has spoken of the attempts to restrict the franchise as being in the malign tradition of ‘Jim Crow’ laws. He is unable to persuade a vast swathe of the US population to take a Covid vaccine, such has been the poisoning of the well in the last few years.

Biden has shown that effective administration and good governance has been what the US was sorely lacking in during 45’s term. He is leading from the front on the pandemic, the economy, the restoration of international multi-lateralism, and the upholding of constitutionalism. He can only do what he can do. If America falls, it won’t be for lack of commitment on Biden’s part. He’s doing everything in his gift to stop it from doing so.