Editor’s Note: Jeff Weaver, a long-time aide to Senator Bernie Sanders and campaign manager for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, led “America’s Progressive Promise PAC,” a pro-Democratic Super PAC working to engage progressive voters during the 2020 general election. The opinions expressed in this commentary are the writer’s own. Read more opinion at CNN.
The sacking of the US Capitol by right-wing goons marks a turning point in American democracy. This country has a long and hallowed tradition of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, which has played a central role in many of America’s important struggles for social and economic change, including the civil rights movement, the fight for women’s suffrage, the labor movement and many others.
But make no mistake – what took place at the US Capitol Wednesday is not a part of that tradition. If a group of Trump supporters entered the Capitol and held a sit-in in the rotunda, they might be able to make the claim that they were engaging in the type of peaceful protest that is key to American democracy. That is not what happened.
The invasion of the Capitol has been called an insurrection. Others have called it an attempted coup. These characterizations get at the truth. But regardless of what one calls it, it was an overt attempt to stop our constitutionally mandated process of peacefully transferring power from one administration to the next. Violent, far-right rioters – egged on by the President himself – tried to thwart the very operation of our democracy by force. These thugs, to put it bluntly, acted as enemies of our republic – the very domestic enemies lawmakers are sworn to oppose when they take their oath of office.
Some will say that January 6 will turn Americans away from Trumpism and potentially spark a more civil discourse in politics. We can all pray they are right. But this naive view ignores the deep social and economic ills that drove tens of millions of hard-working Americans into Trump’s arms throughout the last four years, including a growing percentage of minority voters. Those preconditions still exist, ready to be exploited by Trump and those who seek to emulate him.
The darker and more likely truth is that American democracy is in grave danger despite Trump’s election defeat in November. In 1923, a fringe, right-wing party in the democratic German Weimar Republic attempted a coup that history remembers as the Beer Hall Putsch. It was amateurish in its execution and quickly crushed by authorities. Democracy was saved…or so it seemed at the time.
The Weimar government’s response toward the perpetrators of the coup, however, was timid to say the least. Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party leader who plotted the putsch, was convicted of treason and served less than a year of his five-year sentence. With Germany reeling from hyperinflation and a shattered economy, Hitler was on his way to becoming the dictator of Germany, the initiator of World War II and the mass murderer of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Our republic cannot afford to ignore the possibility that January 6 represents the same warning sign of creeping right-wing authoritarianism in our own democracy. Our government must act swiftly by seeking the maximum punishment under the law for all those who smashed their way into the Capitol. This is the moment for resolve, not handwringing. The republic must make clear that it will defend itself from this existential threat.
The response must also hold law enforcement leaders accountable for failing to protect the halls of Congress from invasion. It is inexcusable that the mostly White Trump supporters were allowed to desecrate one of America’s most important monuments to democracy. This failure is even more offensive when taking into account the aggressive police response to the Black Lives Matter protests this summer. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger has already resigned, while Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving will be stepping down from their posts. Congressional leaders were right to demand their resignations, but we still need a full accounting.
Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet secretaries need to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office. Trump may not have directly ordered the assault on the Capitol, but he certainly stoked lies about election fraud, instructed his followers to head to the Capitol on Wednesday and initially resisted calling the National Guard once his supporters breached the building. While Trump finally acknowledged on Thursday a new administration would enter the White House on January 20, his concession comes after baselessly denigrating America’s democratic processes, encouraging violence and threatening to remain in office even in the face of electoral defeat.
If Pence is unwilling to take action, Congress must rally immediately to defend our republic. The House should vote to impeach Trump and the Senate should return to Washington to hold a trial. Even if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel refuses to act before inauguration, the world will take note and history will distinguish between the patriots prepared to defend our American democracy and the cowards willing to give the President a pass.
But even if Trump is removed from office, the work to rebuild the fabric of our democracy would not be finished. Every lawmaker must be intentional about restoring the people’s faith in our government. Too many people who have been left behind feel unrepresented in our political process and believe with increasing justification that no matter how hard they work, no matter how closely they follow the rules, the doorway to economic prosperity and social dignity is closed to them. That environment creates fertile ground for authoritarians like Trump to sow misinformation, undermine our democracy and foment racial and social division. That has to change if the republic is to survive.
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The overarching focus of the Biden administration and the 117th Congress must be to address the very real inequities in this society in a bold and unwavering way. Those committed to our constitutional system of government – as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are – must demonstrate they are equally and authentically committed to the well-being of working Americans of all races.
At the end of the day, that is the only cure for the cancer of right-wing authoritarianism that is metastasizing in the nation’s body politic. Without that cure, the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, may well turn out to be America’s Beer Hall Putsch.