On solemn anniversary, Biden's fiery speech stands out

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Though many on the right suggest otherwise, Jan. 6 really was a big deal. But as awful as it was, it is not what physically happened to the Capitol building or the people working inside it that makes it a big deal; it's the justifications cited by nefarious actors that motivated the insurrection. The emergency comes from the idea that the express will of the people could be completely disregarded. While Democrats have focused their energies on combating voter-suppression efforts, Americans need to understand that the real threat is not on the front end with voter suppression; it is on the back end with counting and certifying. If a person voted and then that vote was unjustifiably not counted or thrown out, why would the person ever vote again in the future? A core tenet of our democracy is the belief and trust that our votes will be counted. The last administration and many in the GOP have injected doubt and cynicism into our electoral process. By subverting the system by which our votes
are cast and counted, they will ensure that there can no longer be accountability to voters. And that is a very big deal for the survival of American democracy. —Lynn Schmidt ([link removed]) , Renew America Movement Fellow

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** He's not going to take this anymore
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On the first anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, President Biden had his "Network" moment. He's mad as hell about the persistence of the "Big Lie" regarding the 2020 election, and about the efforts to subvert U.S. democracy based on that pernicious falsehood. Speaking from the Capitol's Statuary Hall, following remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she compared Jan. 6 to other infamous dates in U.S. history, including Pearl Harbor and 9/11, Biden pointedly called out the "defeated" former president. "He values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more powerful than his country's interests. Because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution," Biden said. He also offered a challenge to all Americans: "At this moment we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be. Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Or are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election
officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it." Well said. —The New York Times ([link removed])
* — "We were very honored by his being here." In Congress, only two Republicans helped mark the anniversary in the House—Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. The elder Cheney, who served five terms in the House, observed, “It's an important historical event. You can't overestimate how important it is." He continued, "It's not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years. … I'm deeply disappointed we don't have better leadership in the Republican Party to restore the Constitution." We second that. —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — Keeping Congress safe. The new chief of the U.S. Capitol Police says he is making progress in resolving "critical deficiencies" in the wake of the Jan. 6 attacks and a host of threats against members of Congress—9,000 in the last year alone, according to Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Chief J. Thomas Manger told the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Wednesday that the force is stronger and better equipped today to handle an attack against the Capitol or lawmakers than it was a year ago. —Chicago Tribune ([link removed])
*
* — "We're done. This is the end of the 2020 election." Officials in Maricopa Co., Arizona, on Wednesday undercut nearly every claim that cast doubt on the validity of ballots in an error-plagued report that Arizona Senate Republicans had commissioned of the 2020 presidential election. "The truth is the Maricopa County 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump," said County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican elected in 2020 who has defended the integrity of an elections office that was overseen by the Democrat he defeated. Kudos to Richer. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: Renew America Movement to track extremist candidates —Washington Examiner ([link removed])


** Hasen: Election distrust is contagious
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"Republican election and elected officials who stood up to Trump's attempt to rig the 2020 vote count—like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who refused Trump's entreaties to 'find' 11,780 votes to flip the election to him—are being pushed out or challenged for their jobs in primaries by people embracing Trump's false claims, like Rep. Jody Hice. The new Republicans running elections or certifying or counting votes may have more allegiance to Trump or his successor in 2024 than to a fair vote count, creating conditions for Democrats to join Republicans in believing the election system is rigged." —Richard Hasen in ([link removed]) The New York Times ([link removed])

Richard Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of "Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy."

MORE: Here's where election-denying candidates are running to control voting —NPR ([link removed])


** The Economist: The Electoral Count Act of 1887 is ripe for reform
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"For much of the past year, Democrats in Congress have fitfully and unsuccessfully pushed various bits of voting-rights legislation. Whatever the merits of these bills, they are an odd first response to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Record numbers of Americans voted in 2020. Long queues and pandemic-driven confusion notwithstanding, the problem was not access to the ballot; it was the attempted chicanery with the counting." — ([link removed]) The Economist ([link removed])

MORE: Top Senate Republican signals support for election reform —Axios ([link removed])


** Dunn & Gonell: Capitol officers deserve justice
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"It will not be enough to identify and punish only those who physically attacked the Capitol and tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. The American people deserve to know who played any role in planning or financing the events that led to the attack, who failed to take timely action to warn of and prepare for the impending violence, and who failed or refused to send timely reinforcements to defend the Capitol and come to the aid of the officers bearing the brunt of the attack. That’s why it’s critical for the select committee to have unimpeded access to all the information it requires to develop a comprehensive factual record, and to produce a definitive investigative report." —Harry Dunn & Aquilino Gonell in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Harry Dunn is a private first class and 14-year veteran with the U.S. Capitol Police. Aquilino Gonell is a sergeant and 15-year veteran with the U.S. Capitol Police. Both were on duty and injured on Jan. 6, 2021.

MORE: A year after Jan. 6 attack, push for quick reaction force is dead on Capitol Hill —Defense One ([link removed])
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** Theil: Stop acting as if democracy were doomed
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"[T]he history of democracy fatigue is as old as democracy itself: In 1787, Benjamin Franklin predicted that the American republic would soon end in despotism, 'when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.' History went on to tell another story. Despite its well-documented flaws and constant need for reinvention, liberal democracy has brought civil rights, political participation, social mobility, and economic opportunity to once-disenfranchised masses and minorities. Around the world, poor and autocratic countries might gladly take Moscow's mercenaries and Beijing's money, but it's still Western-style democracy to which their citizens aspire." —Stefan Theil in ([link removed]) Foreign Policy ([link removed])

Stefan Theil is the deputy editor of
Foreign Policy.

MORE: Rep. Jason Crow introduces pro-democracy initiatives on anniversary of insurrection —Colorado Newsline ([link removed])


** Howard: Reform is the cure for virus of distrust
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"Coming into the new year, it is vital to come to grips with the disease that most threatens American democracy—nearly universal distrust of its governing institutions. The anger and polarization rivening society are symptoms of that distrust. … Americans overwhelmingly think our democracy needs to be overhauled. Let's create a movement to do just that. The current trench warfare is leading us nowhere except continued distrust, public failure, and unravelling of the great promise of American democracy." —Philip K. Howard in ([link removed]) Newsweek ([link removed])

Philip K. Howard is an attorney, author, and the founder and chair of Common Good.

MORE: They believe in the 'Big Lie.' Here's why it's been so hard to dispel —NPR ([link removed])


** Gallaudet: Only principled leaders can save us
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"How then are we to truly unify the nation? Consider the common thread behind Adm. Bill McRaven's criticisms of Trump—his inability to 'do the right thing' and put the country before himself, which ultimately manifested on Jan. 6 and in his continued false claims of election fraud. McRaven himself may have provided the best example yet of the kind of compromise needed when he spoke in 2020 against Trump's re-election. Despite his conservative ideals, he knew he could not support such a divisive and selfish leader. This is the kind of real leadership that we should expect of those running for office in the 2022 midterms—to put country before party and country before self." —Tim Gallaudet in ([link removed]) The Hill ([link removed])

Rear Adm. (ret.) Tim Gallaudet is an adviser for Renew America Movement and a former deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, assistant secretary of Commerce, and oceanographer in the U.S. Navy.

MORE: 10 Republicans voted to impeach. What's become of them? —The New York Times ([link removed])

Sean Hannity wants to have it both ways: he has repeatedly claimed not to be a journalist when that has served as a convenient defense against criticism. Now we have the unedifying spectacle of his attorney, Mr. Sekulow, raising the spectre of 1st Amendment freedom of the press issues as an excuse for Hannity not to testify before Congress. Again, and in the immortal words of Dana Carvey's Church Lady, "How ConVEEENient." —Scott K., California

Your article on gerrymandering could have very appropriately included Utah's failure to honor a highly successful voter initiative establishing an independent redistricting commission. For several months after the 2020 Census, a highly respected redistricting commission that included a former Utah State Supreme Court justice spent hundreds of hours with focus groups across the state, computer simulations and open, public debate submitted to the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature 12 options for redistricting. Without blushing and almost no discussion, the Legislature rejected all 12 options and voted in their own map they had drawn behind closed doors. They did it because they could. —Lee B., Utah
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