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there's so many moments that lead up to the storming of the capitol - moments that span over five years and beyond. but with events moving so quickly, let's just take a look at what happened in recent days.
first off, POTUS made clear, really since his 2015 campaign that he'd do and say all kind of things to undermine faith in the bedrock of democracy: the vote
he did it even after he won! one of his first actions was to convene a group to look into what he said was massive fraud, they never found anything but he continued to spread that disinformation. https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/03/politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission-evidence-documents/index.html
voting in the US is a complex thing in that it's administered by a bunch of different localities. In someways that's a protection against attacks, in other ways it means information about vote tallies comes in unevenly, such was the case in the election this year
So as the votes were counted the disinformation started. But this disinformation had been happening for years. For years. We have to remember that. For some, it was discredited b/c it'd been happening for years w/ no proof, for others, it was gospel.
The rallies started shortly after the election. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/13/business/stop-the-steal-disinformation-campaign-invs/index.html
and they continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/12/us/stop-the-steal-protest-washington-dc-trnd/
and meanwhile, the President and his allies worked the phones, trying to over turn election results in states https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/2020-election-trump-pennsylvania/index.html
because of the way the presidential election is conducted through the electoral college, there were all kinds of procedural things that had to happen which allowed for all kinds of pressure points.
culminating of course in the congressional role on Wednesday. As most folks know, this is typically, or at least in my lifetime, a rather perfunctory occasion. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/explaining-how-congress-settles-electoral-college-disputes
but the warning signs were clear that at minimum Weds was not to be routine.
Sunday the world heard POTUS on tape pressuring GA election officials to overturn his loss in that state https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-phone-call-transcript/index.html
the call itself happened on Saturday Jan 2nd and was one of 18 attempted calls from the WH to the GA SOS since the election https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-calls-georgia/index.html
@washingtonpost is now reporting there was another call down to my home state on Dec 23rd https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-call-georgia-investigator/2021/01/09/7a55c7fa-51cf-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html
but back to the events of the past week- we all learned about Saturday's call on Sunday. Monday Trump rallied supporters in Georgia ahead of the Senate runoff.
our @donie was there and filed this dispatch https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/01/05/trump-voters-georgia-runoff-lr-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-news/
officially this was a rally about control of the US senate but the folks @donie spoke to were focused on disinformation about the presidential election.
Tuesday was the election in GA - that was also the day Pence told Trump he could block certification of Biden's win https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/05/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump-congress-election/index.html
and
all the while, supporters of the President, and POTUS himself, were promoting a rally on the day Congress would certify https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-protests/trump-invited-supporters-to-wild-protest-and-told-them-to-fight-they-did-idUSKBN29B24S
we're still learning more about all the different groups that participated in promoting the rally - @ajc has some reporting on one group that apparently made robocalls the day before urging people to show up https://www.ajc.com/politics/group-chaired-by-chris-carr-called-trump-supporters-to-urge-them-to-march-to-us-capitol/WYK2VIQG7RG7RKWDKLHWWKCJH4/
of course, not all who turned up to rally went on to storm the capitol - there's plenty left to learn about the events of the day and the events that led up to it. but it's clear that the day further stained America's reputation, left five people dead and was (cont)
predicated and motivated by a belief in something that's objectively and discernably untrue.
Democracy is a shared idea. One that only endures if people take care of it and believe in it.
I used to tutor my fellow college students in American gov't - it's amazing because we've got access to the best information much of it free and at our fingertips but many are seduced by fantasy tales.
I remember once talking to a friend who was upset about some bill that passed congress, he was recounting what he thought was in it. He didn't know he could access the text of the bill himself and read for himself.
I get it, the source material is sometimes dry and not as accessible. But the events of this week demonstrated what can happen when even a small slice of a democratic society believes in a falsehood.
There's a hopeful part of me that thinks some of this might be aided when this pandemic is over and we can gather again, and see each other face to face, but also I just miss people and know that it's going to take a lot of dedicated work to get out of this mess.
