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John,
It’s been one year since the United States Capitol was attacked. On January 6th, 2021, a mob of rioters broke through police lines, climbed barricades, and smashed into one of the most vital institutions in this country. They put the lives of every member of Congress that was in the building in danger, actively threatened lawmakers, and killed Capitol police officers.
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This insurrection occured because the Republican platform at the time, and largely still today, was that the election was stolen. The former president and his cabinet, as well as almost every major GOP figure, started a massive misinformation campaign about the 2020 election that is still continuing today. 147 Republican lawmakers voted against certifying the election. States were forced to audit their results for months. What did they find? That the election was even more legitimate than they originally thought.
And yet, over a year after the election, the former president is still spreading misinformation and claiming victory.
So, surely the proper action has been taken and those responsible have been held accountable, right? While some of the rioters themselves have been convicted, the true source of the event – major Republican elected officials who pushed election misinformation – have been almost entirely ignored. Trump, arguably the mastermind of the event, who was recorded on tape asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find more votes”, is free with no threat of prison.
In Pennsylvania, dozens of Republican lawmakers on the state and federal level lawmakers heeded Donald Trump’s call to overturn the election. For instance, Congressman Scott Perry (R-PA) and Republican State Senator Doug Mastriano were loud about their claims of a stolen election, and Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA) asked that a court throw out all mail ballots received in the state of Pennsylvania. On top of this a group of Pennsylvania Republican state legislators pushed one of the more pervasive election lies, that there were more than 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania.
The January 6th investigative committee is continuing a slow investigation into the event, but not much seems to have come from it. Not enough, at least.
It seems we are powerless to hold people accountable through the correct channels. So, what is the way forward? To restore our democracy, we need to focus heavily on voting rights legislation. Many states, as well as federal lawmakers, are proposing (and passing, in some cases) groundbreaking voting rights protections. Laws that will make it harder for people in power (and let’s be honest, that means Republicans, with their tendency to gerrymander ‘til the cows come home, remove ballot boxes, and suppress voting access) to hinder our democracy.
That’s where our focus needs to be. We are unable to convince the extreme-right side of the Republican base to support our democracy, but we can surely make it harder for their lawmakers to destroy the fabric of this country. On all levels of government, in every state, we need to be passing major voting rights bills to make sure that Republicans are unable to take us back to the times of disenfranchisement and suppression, as it seems they would love to do.
We need people in Congress that are willing to stand up for voting rights, fight for our democracy, and be loud about it. We need people in state governments that are willing to say no to Republican figures when they come asking to find more votes. We need to vote out every single Republican that voted against the certification of the election. Only then will we be able to move forward in this country. How will we be able to fix any major, systemic issues in this nation if we can’t even agree to be a functioning democracy?
Half of the Republican party is spreading misinformation on a near daily basis, and the other half is complicit for not stopping it. Half of the Democratic party is unwilling to take the stances necessary to protect our country, but the other half is here to fight. This last half, the half that I belong to, will put blood, sweat, and tears into protecting our democracy.
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Thank you for helping me push back against the assault on our democracy.
In Solidarity,
Alexandra Hunt |
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