Thomas Zimmer
Wrote this on January 6, 2024:
“If the insurrectionist-in-chief returns to power without ever facing any real consequences and while explicitly declaring his intent to establish a vindictive autocracy, then January 6 will have been successful.”
One year later, here we are.
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/january-6-in-history
Thomas Zimmer
That is not how the story has played out over the past four years. Instead, those who are nominally tasked with defending democracy and the rule of law have proved unable and/or unwilling to hold the line, accommodating extremism instead. A pervasive, system-wide failure.
Thomas Zimmer
There was, right after the Insurrection, one possible future scenario in which the attack on the Capitol would have played a crucial role in galvanizing the pro-democracy forces, in getting more people to grapple honestly with the anti-democratic radicalization of the Republican Party.
Thomas Zimmer
In this scenario, the constitution would have actually been applied to Donald Trump: No longer would his impunity have been justified by exceptionalizing him – for fear of backlash, or because of a self-defeating assumption that every form of resistance could only ever benefit Trump.
Thomas Zimmer
In this scenario, January 6 would have helped spark a mobilization of civil society in the defense of constitutional government and marked an important moment in an intensified push towards finally realizing the promise of egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy.
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