To the Editor:
Second Opinion.
When there is an issue of great national concern, or one with political implications, Individual Congressional committees should not be the ones to judge the matter. A bipartisan Independent Commission, comprised of respected individuals not currently in public office, should have a clear mission: to assemble, hear, and judge the facts surrounding the event, and to report to the Congress and nation their findings. The events surrounding 9/11 was such an issue; the Insurrection of January 6, 2021 was another.
Initially, numerous Repos laughably minimized the assault. One, Rep. Andrew Clyde likened the riot to a group of spirited “tourists.” On January 6, Rep. Clyde was videotaped scrambling to push furniture in front of the House entrance to keep the “tourists” out, amidst breaking glass and angry shouted threats from the “visitors.” Another Repo described them as a “rowdy group of misfits.” There’s no arguing that, but they were in the service and at the bidding of the then-president of the US; the Stop the Steal and pro-Trump signs, and the events before the breach of the capitol building speak to that conclusion. In fact, over 140 officers were injured, five people died, and legislators were hunted in the halls of the capitol. Horrific calls to “hang Mike Pence” were heard, even as the then-vice-president escaped down the back stairs accompanied by a military aide with the “nuclear football” containing the “nuclear biscuit,” the actual codes.
When the bipartisan House Investigative Committee voted to create an Independent Commission for January 6, the Relican leadership rejected it. Mitch and Kevin had all sorts of convoluted reasons for rejection before McConnell, when it became clear there would be some Republican votes for the Commission, asked his Party to vote “No,” as a personal favor to him. Why, you might ask? After all, McConnell blamed the January 6 riot on Trump from the floor of the Senate after the second Impeachment, before he sanded it down and painted it over.
The reason is simple: the Relicans do not want the American people to discover the length to which their Party and their Great Leader went to discredit democracy and the election. They want their base to believe what they tell them to believe, and not the clear facts and images before their eyes. As Mitch said, he has one aim and one aim only: to subvert the Biden administration. Eyes-open truth and defense of democracy is a luxury they therefore can’t afford.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” American political philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore