It was after midnight, and I was exhausted from the events of the previous 24 hours. It was January 7, 2021, and I watched in horror the events of January 6. It was disgusting that the cradle of democracy would be so defiled. But at 12:01 AM, I was given hope again because, on my television, the most wonderfully boring reality show was playing out on CNN. The Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were presiding over the counting and certification of votes for the next president of the United States.
Democracy survived. Most Americans outside the Washington Capital beltway don’t realize that the wounds of January 6 are reopened almost on a daily basis for those of us who consider ourselves as congressional institutionalists. Every time the media report, another insurrectionist is arrested, every time another one is sentenced, and every time the former President pledges to pardon them, it hurts. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to improving and maintaining the United States Congress, reliving those terrible events is truly painful.
We will never be able to wash away the scars of January 6 in the same way we cannot erase the wounds caused by the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, or the incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps in World War II. Yet, we must also not let these events define us as a society and nation. In all these cases, America has rebounded, healed itself, and once again proved to the world it is still a shining city on a hill, a symbol of democracy, freedom, and human rights.
Some look at the coming weeks and the four years that will follow with grim anticipation. And by no means do I wish to diminish or downplay the damage the next president may inflict on our nation and the world. But I’m also reminded that in his first term, the 45th President of the United States promised to ban Muslims from coming into the country, and he was stopped by the courts. He promised to overturn the Affordable Care Act, denying millions access to medical care, and the United States Senate thwarted him. And he threatened to unleash the military on peaceful protesters after the George Floyd murder, and he was blocked by the Pentagon.
America is much more resilient than we often give ourselves credit for. The checks and balance system that our Founders gave us has worked pretty well these last eight years, and it will work just as well in the next four years. With all this talk of being a dictator on day one, he cannot be. The Constitution gave us three equal branches of government. And while sometimes they don’t act like it, they still have the power to reign in excesses.
Perhaps it’s a byproduct of our cynical times that we focus on the negative and the day democracy was threatened instead of the day that democracy survived. We must not forget that January 6 was followed by January 7. And when the sun came up that next morning, American democracy was still alive. Indeed, you could argue it was thriving, as it had survived the most brutal attack on it since the Civil War.
While I will weep on January 6, 2025, just as I have on every January 6 since that fateful day, I will also smile, celebrate, and applaud January 7. Because that is the day democracy asserted itself and reminded us the American experiment goes on.
Bradford Fitch is a former congressional staffer, the former CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, and author of “ Citizen’s Handbook to Influencing Elected Officials.”
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