The House committee investigating what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 announced Monday that it will try to obtain phone records from several hundred people, including lawmakers, to get to the bottom of what was discussed beforehand. This follows an Aug. 20 report by Reuters, already generating fierce political controversy, that a long-running FBI investigation has concluded the events in the Capitol were not “the result of an organized plot to overthrow the presidential election result.” Quoting current and former law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation, Reuters said the FBI “at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated” and has found “no evidence that [President Trump] or people directly around him were involved.”
This report, if accurate, deals a devastating blow to the dominant Democratic Party and liberal media narrative that Jan. 6 was an “insurrection” — the worst assault on the U.S. government since the War of 1812, or at least the Civil War. Somewhat belying these hyperbolic historical comparisons is the fact that most of the protesters who breached the Capitol were unarmed and the only incidence of gunfire was when a Capitol police officer shot and killed a woman, Ashli Babbitt, a shooting for which he will not face disciplinary action.
Also telling is that of the more than 500 individuals arrested, only a few cases reportedly have been adjudicated and most of these involved individuals who accepted plea bargains for relatively minor offenses such as trespassing or obstruction of justice in order to avoid incarceration.
Does this indicate a strong disinclination on the part of the government to take cases to trial in which they would have to reveal evidence to the public and defense attorneys? Also highly problematic would be the release of more than 14,000 hours of security videos by which the total reality of the “insurrection” could be viewed by the public.
Obviously, both the Democratic Party and many in the liberal media are powerfully invested in portraying Jan. 6 as one of the most dangerous, sinister threats to democracy in the history of the republic. Here is evidence of a concerted effort to transform American politics and culture in ways congenial to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and its media enablers:
- The energetic but failed attempt to establish a national commission similar to that following 9/11;
- The formation of the “bipartisan” House investigation, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dictating which GOP members could serve;
- The swift construction of a vast fence surrounding the Capitol, along with more soldiers than we had in Iraq and Afghanistan combined, to repel an expected attack from masses of violent extremists;
- The solemn declaration by President Biden and Pentagon officials that the greatest threat to our national security was not China or Russia but domestic terrorists;
- The strong commitment of the Secretary of Defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to identify and purge from the military’s ranks the large number of known white supremacists in uniform; and
- The ominous willingness of tech giants to demonize and silence any voices daring to question this narrative.
History does not lack for examples of high-profile events being seized upon and radically reconfigured to advance a political agenda — among the best known is the Reichstag fire of Feb.27, 1933, which Adolf Hitler, in power barely a month, transformed to enable the destruction of his principal opponent, the Communist Party, and impose a brutal single-party rule over the entire German nation. This familiar playbook was memorably described by George Orwell in his classic novels, “Animal Farm” and “1984.”
The “insurrection” narrative seemed to be working for a while, but lately it has been bumping into a few inconvenient truths, most notably the residual strengths inherent in the battered yet unbroken pillars of American Democracy: the rule of law and our oft-criticized but enduring Constitution.
Truly startling events have cascaded upon our country during the past year, ranging from the merely objectionable to the calamitous. The American people are seeing their lives changed in ways they did not expect or want. Generally a tolerant people, traditionally committed to expressing themselves through elections, there is mounting evidence that once again Americans will advance a new narrative, rather different from that enshrined as “Insurrection Day.”
William Moloney is a Fellow in Conservative Thought at Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute who studied at Oxford and the University of London and received his doctorate from Harvard University. He is a former Colorado Commissioner of Education.