January 2021

NYT Opinion: "When the Threat of Political Violence Is Real" by Joanne Freeman

Scarcely had the violence ebbed on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 when the Republican calls for healing began. Representative Debbie Lesko of Arizona made an anti-impeachment cease-and-desist plea on Jan. 12 that was typical of many. Addressing Democrats, she warned that impeachment would “further divide our country, further the unrest and possibly incite more violence.” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina concurred, declaring on Fox News that calls for impeachment would “incite more violence” and “divide the country.”

PBS News Hour: Joanne Freeman explains why the words we use today to describe the events at the Capitol will shape its history

Was it an insurrection? A coup? Should we call it domestic terrorism? Or just a peaceful protest gone awry? As a battle of politics becomes a battle for words to describe what happened in the capital and on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, Christopher Booker speaks to Joanne Freeman, a history professor at Yale University about why words used to describe the event today will shape its history.

NYT Opinion: "How Trumpism May Endure" by David Blight

One hundred and fifty years after the emergence of the Confederate Lost Cause ideology, a new Lost Cause invaded the U.S. Capitol with the incitement of the president of the United States. Waving American, Confederate, Gadsden and, especially, Trump flags, Donald Trump’s loyalists desecrated the greatest symbolic edifice of America.

New York Times Magazine: "The American Abyss" by Timothy Snyder

When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version.

NYT Opinion: "How to Ensure This Never Happens Again" by Beverly Gage and Emily Bazelon

The path from the Nov. 3 election has been harrowing for American democracy. Though state and local officials ran clean, well-functioning elections, leaving no doubt that Joe Biden was the victor, President Trump and a sizable faction of Republicans in Congress have relentlessly tried to subvert the results. Their assault culminated in Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol, a physical attack on the home of our democracy, incited by the sitting president.