Two years ago today, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral ballots that would put a Democrat in the White House. There was no doubt Joe Biden had won: his majority in the popular vote was more than 7 million and he won the electoral college by 306 votes to 232, the same margin that the incumbent Republican had called a “landslide” four years earlier when it favored him. But supporters of that incumbent, Donald Trump, believed that Democrats could not possibly have won fairly and that if they had, it simply meant their voters were illegitimate.
Statement of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee
Commemorating the 2nd Anniversary of the Assault on the U.S. Capitol:
Two years on and the mere mention of “January 6th” is still enough to stir the vast majority of Americans to the same sense of outrage as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Assassination of JFK and the 9/11 terrorist assaults: each one a day that shall live in infamy.
Thousands of armed insurrectionists staged an assault upon our democracy unseen since the Civil War, wounding hundreds of law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop the peaceful transition of Presidential power that is at the core of our American democracy.
As has been outlined in brilliant detail by the January 6th Committee, those who stormed the Capital were whipped into a frenzy through weeks and months of countless Republican elected officials attending “Stop the Steal” rallies touting the “Big Lie” that the presidential election was stolen.
On November 8, 2020, one of the nation’s earliest “Stop the Steal” rallies took place in Loudoun County, in Purcellville, with then-Del. Dave LaRock, a far right-wing, Republican extremist, being joined at the podium by Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, head of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia. Rhodes has been convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the January 6 insurrection. While LaRock attended Trump’s January 6th warmup rally, he apparently lacked the courage of his convictions and didn’t march into the Capitol.
Another headliner at the Nov. 8th rally: Geary Higgins, currently a Republican candidate for Virginia’s 31st State Senate District.
One week later, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman, a Republican, headlined another Stop the Steal rally in Purcellville.
Multiple prominent Loudoun County Republicans were at the forefront of promoting the “Big Lie” and advocating extreme efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Many of these Republicans will be on the ballot in 2023, running for state and county offices. As the campaigns take shape, we will keep track and let you know who among them played a role when our democracy was in peril in 2020 -2021.
We Democrats must not forget January 6th. We must embrace our sense of revulsion at those who sought to destroy our precious and delicate constitutional democracy. And we must honor all of those – law enforcement officers, members of Congress and all the public servants who risked their life that day to defend our democracy – who are devoted to doing the right things.
The slow-moving coup continues it's march. McCarthy will be a pitiful excuse of a speaker. He easily could have avoided this debacle by reaching out to a handful of moderate Democrats with minor concessions, yet he choose to sell his soul to Gaetz, et. al., guaranteeing that Movement Conservatives will hogtie the government for at least the next two years.
The closet insurrectionists are winning, but they haven't won... yet.
Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for giving us a summary of the history of how we got to the current day, ending up with a weasel like McCarthy as Speaker... A total disgrace to our beautiful country when there are people like Hakeem Jeffries
It is truly frightening to watch the Republicans in action. There is nothing redeeming about them. McCarthy is just slime personified. So the way I see the next 2 years is the Republican House proposing outrageous bills, which they need a simple majority of 218 to pass. The Democrats can probably not get their issues heard because McCarthy will not let them. However, fortunately we can count on the Senate to not pass these bills when they come to them. Biden can veto them too. If a budget is going to be passed in the fall, the Democrats in the House better get on convincing 6 Republicans to vote with them now. I also think that the Democrats should be trying to pass all of the legislation that they want to anyway, and let the public see what is voted down by Republicans. Unfortunately, this country seems to have too many people who cannot imagine things they have never experienced, which is how the Republican Party likes it. I am not looking forward to these 2 years.
Interesting that the first legislation McCarthy will put up is to cut back on the increase in IRS funding. I can't help but wonder if that was his quid pro quo to get Trump to talk to the 6 holdouts last night. And of course the Republicans sowed disinformation that it was about an "army" of IRS agents coming to get you as opposed to total employees needed ot staff the service to be added to the IRS after a decade of underfunding.
I am wondering how much of the of the next two years will be about MAGA crazies putting up show piece legislation that does not get approved in the Senate or gets vetoed by Biden. Of course it will be "unfair" that the Democrats will be able block their legislation in the Senate and by Presidential veto...
A few other thoughts on yesterday's proceedings:
a) I wonder who will be the first Member to call for a confidence vote on McCarthy and how long it will be before it happens.
b) I found the body language interesting between McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene who seemed glued to his side.
c) Personally currently being down with covid for the second time after all vaccinations and boosters and masking and limiting close contacts I am wondering how many members of the House will be ill after the many long hours, stress, close contact and spitting mad spittle spewing interactions there were on the House floor.
d) I wonder who will be the first Republican to bring a gun onto the floor of the House with open carry now that the metal detectors have been removed.
Well, TWO YEARS LATER, Trump is still golfing at Mara Lago, fundraising on the backs of the believers, golfing at Mara Lago, spinning out lies about Ruby Freeman, golfing at Mara Lago, spinning out hate to his believers, golfing at Mara Lago and.......
well, I think you get the picture that America offers it's people.
If you screw enough people to the wall, are white, get enough money, then?
You can absolutely WHATEVER YOU WANT, WHENEVER YOU WANT TO WHOMEVER YOU WANT TO DO IT TO.
These last two Letters have opened my eyes. Yesterday's Letter included a phrase that I found illuminating - my emphasis:
"Lawmakers like Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) are clearly enjoying the power they are currently wielding, but their larger project is the one the party has advertised SINCE THEY WERE CHILDREN: stopping the government from any of the actions it has called “Marxist” or “socialist,” burning it all down to make white Americans free."
I grew up inside a New Deal ideology, in a multiracial city, while labor unions were strong, before deindustrialization, decades before Gaetz, Boebert, et al were born. Thus I've seen what CAN work, and they haven't. I can't account for their dearth of imagination - maybe I should say, for their lurid imaginations - but I can see their lack of experience of a society that began to work better for everyone.
Re your mention of FDR’s Four Freedoms speech: BBC radio dedicated its annual Reith Lecture series for 2022 to the Four Freedoms of the speech and had four speakers each one addressing one of the freedoms. The lectures are available online and are worth listening to.
"it took money from wealthy people and redistributed it through government programs to poorer Americans"
Gravity can be a drag, but we al; benefit from it's presence. That said, you want to stay away from "black holes" in space that draw in everything in their vicinity. Monopoly is roughly the economic equivalent of that. Feudalism sucked. Bad Old Days Gilded Age monopolies oppressed workers and warped democracy, and yet that is what Republicans are selling. Admittedly, in retirement I am living on investments, but money can snowball like a black hole, and what does that do to the neighborhood? At some point big money has more to do with controlling money than than fair exchange, and that can be a problem. Billionaires don't like to be told they can't have everything.
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” - Lincoln
Your positive last paragraph seems like an epitaph for the life we have known. McCarthy has sold, not only his soul, but sold out the country as well. Dems were gleeful watching McCarthy’s humiliation but now the crazies have the power to destroy us. They will destroy McCarthy as well. Poor consolation.
Statement of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee
Commemorating the 2nd Anniversary of the Assault on the U.S. Capitol:
Two years on and the mere mention of “January 6th” is still enough to stir the vast majority of Americans to the same sense of outrage as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Assassination of JFK and the 9/11 terrorist assaults: each one a day that shall live in infamy.
Thousands of armed insurrectionists staged an assault upon our democracy unseen since the Civil War, wounding hundreds of law enforcement officers in an attempt to stop the peaceful transition of Presidential power that is at the core of our American democracy.
As has been outlined in brilliant detail by the January 6th Committee, those who stormed the Capital were whipped into a frenzy through weeks and months of countless Republican elected officials attending “Stop the Steal” rallies touting the “Big Lie” that the presidential election was stolen.
On November 8, 2020, one of the nation’s earliest “Stop the Steal” rallies took place in Loudoun County, in Purcellville, with then-Del. Dave LaRock, a far right-wing, Republican extremist, being joined at the podium by Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes, head of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia. Rhodes has been convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in organizing the January 6 insurrection. While LaRock attended Trump’s January 6th warmup rally, he apparently lacked the courage of his convictions and didn’t march into the Capitol.
Another headliner at the Nov. 8th rally: Geary Higgins, currently a Republican candidate for Virginia’s 31st State Senate District.
One week later, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman, a Republican, headlined another Stop the Steal rally in Purcellville.
Multiple prominent Loudoun County Republicans were at the forefront of promoting the “Big Lie” and advocating extreme efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power. Many of these Republicans will be on the ballot in 2023, running for state and county offices. As the campaigns take shape, we will keep track and let you know who among them played a role when our democracy was in peril in 2020 -2021.
We Democrats must not forget January 6th. We must embrace our sense of revulsion at those who sought to destroy our precious and delicate constitutional democracy. And we must honor all of those – law enforcement officers, members of Congress and all the public servants who risked their life that day to defend our democracy – who are devoted to doing the right things.
Such a sad day for our country. A morally bankrupt party is now in control with a weak and morally bankrupt “leader”.
The slow-moving coup continues it's march. McCarthy will be a pitiful excuse of a speaker. He easily could have avoided this debacle by reaching out to a handful of moderate Democrats with minor concessions, yet he choose to sell his soul to Gaetz, et. al., guaranteeing that Movement Conservatives will hogtie the government for at least the next two years.
The closet insurrectionists are winning, but they haven't won... yet.
Watch this: https://youtu.be/-1It5Z7dfMY
Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for giving us a summary of the history of how we got to the current day, ending up with a weasel like McCarthy as Speaker... A total disgrace to our beautiful country when there are people like Hakeem Jeffries
And the battle for our Democracy continues. I hope I live to be in the time that truth prevails and good wins over evil.
It is truly frightening to watch the Republicans in action. There is nothing redeeming about them. McCarthy is just slime personified. So the way I see the next 2 years is the Republican House proposing outrageous bills, which they need a simple majority of 218 to pass. The Democrats can probably not get their issues heard because McCarthy will not let them. However, fortunately we can count on the Senate to not pass these bills when they come to them. Biden can veto them too. If a budget is going to be passed in the fall, the Democrats in the House better get on convincing 6 Republicans to vote with them now. I also think that the Democrats should be trying to pass all of the legislation that they want to anyway, and let the public see what is voted down by Republicans. Unfortunately, this country seems to have too many people who cannot imagine things they have never experienced, which is how the Republican Party likes it. I am not looking forward to these 2 years.
There is no Speaker of the House; there is a puppet whose strings are held by a small group of bomb-throwing zealots bent on destruction.
Interesting that the first legislation McCarthy will put up is to cut back on the increase in IRS funding. I can't help but wonder if that was his quid pro quo to get Trump to talk to the 6 holdouts last night. And of course the Republicans sowed disinformation that it was about an "army" of IRS agents coming to get you as opposed to total employees needed ot staff the service to be added to the IRS after a decade of underfunding.
I am wondering how much of the of the next two years will be about MAGA crazies putting up show piece legislation that does not get approved in the Senate or gets vetoed by Biden. Of course it will be "unfair" that the Democrats will be able block their legislation in the Senate and by Presidential veto...
A few other thoughts on yesterday's proceedings:
a) I wonder who will be the first Member to call for a confidence vote on McCarthy and how long it will be before it happens.
b) I found the body language interesting between McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene who seemed glued to his side.
c) Personally currently being down with covid for the second time after all vaccinations and boosters and masking and limiting close contacts I am wondering how many members of the House will be ill after the many long hours, stress, close contact and spitting mad spittle spewing interactions there were on the House floor.
d) I wonder who will be the first Republican to bring a gun onto the floor of the House with open carry now that the metal detectors have been removed.
Two years ago?
Well, TWO YEARS LATER, Trump is still golfing at Mara Lago, fundraising on the backs of the believers, golfing at Mara Lago, spinning out lies about Ruby Freeman, golfing at Mara Lago, spinning out hate to his believers, golfing at Mara Lago and.......
well, I think you get the picture that America offers it's people.
If you screw enough people to the wall, are white, get enough money, then?
You can absolutely WHATEVER YOU WANT, WHENEVER YOU WANT TO WHOMEVER YOU WANT TO DO IT TO.
These last two Letters have opened my eyes. Yesterday's Letter included a phrase that I found illuminating - my emphasis:
"Lawmakers like Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) are clearly enjoying the power they are currently wielding, but their larger project is the one the party has advertised SINCE THEY WERE CHILDREN: stopping the government from any of the actions it has called “Marxist” or “socialist,” burning it all down to make white Americans free."
I grew up inside a New Deal ideology, in a multiracial city, while labor unions were strong, before deindustrialization, decades before Gaetz, Boebert, et al were born. Thus I've seen what CAN work, and they haven't. I can't account for their dearth of imagination - maybe I should say, for their lurid imaginations - but I can see their lack of experience of a society that began to work better for everyone.
Re your mention of FDR’s Four Freedoms speech: BBC radio dedicated its annual Reith Lecture series for 2022 to the Four Freedoms of the speech and had four speakers each one addressing one of the freedoms. The lectures are available online and are worth listening to.
"it took money from wealthy people and redistributed it through government programs to poorer Americans"
Gravity can be a drag, but we al; benefit from it's presence. That said, you want to stay away from "black holes" in space that draw in everything in their vicinity. Monopoly is roughly the economic equivalent of that. Feudalism sucked. Bad Old Days Gilded Age monopolies oppressed workers and warped democracy, and yet that is what Republicans are selling. Admittedly, in retirement I am living on investments, but money can snowball like a black hole, and what does that do to the neighborhood? At some point big money has more to do with controlling money than than fair exchange, and that can be a problem. Billionaires don't like to be told they can't have everything.
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” - Lincoln
In A Man for All Seasons Sir Thomas More says
“Ah, but Richard it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world if he should lose his soul….BUT FOR WALES, RICHARD”
BUT FOR A TARNISHED SPEAKERSHIP, KEVIN
Thank you Heather.
And just like that, the January 6th Coup 2.0 occurred and the radical right insurrectionists took control of the House.
Be safe. Be well. It's just beginning.
Your positive last paragraph seems like an epitaph for the life we have known. McCarthy has sold, not only his soul, but sold out the country as well. Dems were gleeful watching McCarthy’s humiliation but now the crazies have the power to destroy us. They will destroy McCarthy as well. Poor consolation.
I am holding back.
I dare not express the horror I feel.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.