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Don't let the Jan. 6 commission be another missed opportunity

Opinion

Rioters breach Capitol security Jan. 6

Rioters breached Capitol security and stormed the building Jan. 6. The Senate appears poised to block the establishment of an investigative commission.

Win McNamee/Getty Images
Debilyn Molineaux
By Debilyn MolineauxMay 28, 2021
Debilyn Molineaux

Debilyn Molineaux is the catalyst of JEDIfutures.org , a global initiative that helps people imagine and create just, equitable, dignified, and inclusive futures. She is best known for her pioneering work in civic innovation, having co-founded Bridge Alliance, Living Room Conversations, and National Week of Conversation. She formerly acted as co-publisher for The Fulcrum. Across these efforts, Debilyn has brought together unlikely allies to co-create solutions for democracy, governance, and social transformation.

Her work lives at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and spirit. A long-time practitioner of personal and collective growth, she brings a deep commitment to the inner dimensions of change that are often overlooked but essential to transformation. Debilyn speaks of the “interstitial spaces” — the connective tissue between people, institutions, and movements — where new possibilities take root.

She also hosts the podcast Terrified Nation, which helps audiences move from fear and despair into courage and action. Her voice is sought by impact investors, changemakers, and visionary leaders who want to align resources, imagination, and human growth toward a thriving future for all.

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Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and President/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

As a journalistic endeavor, we focus a lot on what's wrong with Congress and the dysfunction that stalls nearly all high-profile legislation from being debated. But we haven't explored the possibilities lost to partisan fighting. How many opportunities do we miss to improve our collective governance?

If Senate Republicans prevail, the so-called Jan. 6 commission will be a major missed opportunity. And the subsequent investigations will lack the gravitas of the bipartisan investigation citizens deserve. Commissions following Watergate and 9/11 put aside political gamesmanship and focused on uncovering the truth. The act of seeking facts together is essential.

All of Congress should be demanding the facts. Especially since each of our elected officials and their staff may have testimony to provide.

The alternative is investigating through congressional committees, where witnesses and committee members are the same people. It would be messier and less believable. Especially with members of Congress already campaigning for their 2022 elections. We have only to remember the many partisan investigations of Benghazi or Donald Trump followed by their weaponization for campaign ads.

Commissions are the best way for us to analyze what happened, what mistakes were made and how we can improve to prevent the same mistakes from happening again. A bipartisan Jan. 6 commission would provide the American people with the facts and reassure us that our government can correct itself in service to the people.

A commission is not a request for more partisanship. We demand an honest accounting of what happened, who was involved and what we missed that could have prevented it from happening. It's an opportunity to build trust, instead of further eroding it.

Such knowledge is critical if we are to advance our society further. It is our duty to create a safe working environment for public officials, their staff and our security forces. If we fail to create a safe working environment for public servants, then hope for democracy is decreased as public service becomes a life-or-death risk few will take.

Lack of a commission at this moment will further diminish our confidence in elected officials and their ability to put aside personal interests for the greater good. Collective good is the essence of public service. Courage is required.

Let's not waste this opportunity. Our nation is counting on our elected leaders.


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Congress approval is at a record-low 10%. Moderation and consensus-building, not partisan theatrics, are how Washington gets problems solved.

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Washington is stuck in a cycle of performative conflict. The incentives seem to reward outrage, not outcomes that last; purity tests, not problem‑solving. So it’s no surprise that after three shutdowns in less than a year, public approval of Congress collapsed to just 10 percent this spring. (Gallup, April 2026.) But the country we live in — where many middle-income families report persistent financial strain and businesses are navigating unprecedented technological upheaval — cannot be governed by theatrics. Breaking this cycle requires moderation, consensus‑building, and a cooperative approach to governance.

This is not a call for centrism as an ideology. Instead, this is a call for transformative leaders to embrace moderation as their governing strategy, recognizing that in a pluralistic country of nearly 350 million people durable solutions require broad and stable alliances. Ultimately, this is a call for the 240 million of us who are eligible to vote in November to elect consensus-builders instead of bomb-throwers, and healers instead of arsonists.

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Congress ignored 90% of public support for background checks. Learn how citizen assemblies and sortition helped Ireland break gridlock and could work in the US.

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In April 2013, four months after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting killed twenty children, the US Senate voted on the Manchin-Toomey Act to expand background checks and to include gun-show and internet sales of firearms. Roughly nine in ten Americans, including a majority of gun owners, supported the bill—a figure that has held steady across more than a decade of polling. It fell short of the 60-vote threshold by six votes. This was not an outlier. On complex issues, representatives often fail to translate public consensus into reality. Research shows that legislators consistently vote in line with donor and interest group preferences over constituent opinion. Before the vote, the National Rifle Association (NRA) warned every senator it would “rate” their vote on its annual rating system, and a low NRA rating could cost senators their next primary. Consequently, the bill died 54-46, and the majority of Americans watched, powerless, as their consensus was overridden by self-interested representatives.

Liberal democracies need a method to bypass electoral incentives that run counter to public opinion. One already exists: Ireland faced the same stalemate on complex issues before it instituted a process called sortition. The beauty of sortition lies in its removal of the primary pressure that misaligns representatives’ interests from public interest: reelection. Much like jury duty, citizens are randomly drawn from the population. An independent body then stratifies the pool, so the final group mirrors the country by age, gender, geography, and income. The group meets over weeks or months, hearing from experts and the public, as well as debating frequently. At the end, it issues a recommendation that parliament may then put to a referendum or pass into law.

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