Conclusions
About noon my time, today, Dec. 19, 2022, the Jan. 6 Select Committee convenes in Washington D.C. I will watch, as I have watched every one of the public hearings of the committee thus far. (The official website of the committee does not show any scheduled hearing; most public channels will carry the proceedings live.)
As regular readers know by now, it is my habit to write on such things before they happen, rather than after. I also hesitate to predict outcomes before the fact.
I will order the full report of the Jan. 6 committee. The final report will truly be an historical document. There will be numerous sources – just search “January 6 final report”.
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For this morning, I choose to replay a portion of an earlier post I published on July 24, 2019, still available on line if you wish to access it. Just go to ARCHIVES at right on this page, and call up the July 2019 calendar.
July 24, 2019 was almost 3 1/2 years ago. It was 1 1/2 years before Jan. 6, 2021.
7/24/19 I wrote a particularly exasperated post, at the time the Mueller Report on the 2016 election was issued.
I said, then: “My opinion: the [then] President is as close to a common criminal as we have ever had in the highest office in the land. It is his hope – and that of his fervent supporters – that he will beat the rap by running out the clock and then be reelected under patently false pretenses in 2020. Others can – and have already – gone to prison. Not him. Yet.”
A reader responded: “Well Common criminal he may be, but he is the best thing this country has seen since Reagan” and threw in that “Obama and Clinton should be in jail.”
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I leave it at that. What do you think?
Each of us are our government at every level. Period.
COMMENTS (more at end of post)
from Fred: Another excellent summation by the committee. It is now on the record that a US chief executive has been charged by the legislative branch with insurrection against the America and its citizens. It is recognition very much deserved, the shame of which will stain that former president and his memory as long as there is a United States of America.
Fortunately, the January 6 insurrection was an anomaly in recorded US history. A favored relative was there, and is included on many video records of the event … he was in swat team gear, protecting the Capitol. Since I consider the words and actions of the former president as treasonous, I find it difficult not to view his supporters as accomplices. Unfortunately, this is my contribution the “the great American divide.” Personally, I long for the diplomacy, analysis, and discourse that I experienced in my childhood home where my parents cancelled each other’s vote. Furthermore, I am one who views the constitution as one of the greatest documents of its kind since the Magna Carta. I will be listening at 12:00 today.
A common criminal is the man child who would be king as you noted, Dick, nothing more and nothing less than that, for his attack and continuing attacks on America and our Constitution. Folks like the people who seem to want an authoritarian type of government in the US like the fellow quoted above (no doubt thinking that kind of government would be able to make everyone think, act, behave and worship the “right” way) will, of course, wring their hands in angst and cry foul should the January 6th committee recommend criminal charges for the man-child to the DOJ. On the other hand, hopefully those folks who still believe in democracy will have prevailed when all is said and done and those who would be prefer a dictator or king will have not.
How many citizens of this country have have already been sentenced to time behind bars? Lost careers , families, reputation and because they were followers. What a low, embarrassing time for our country.
We owe this January 6 Committee so much. The Co-chairs have shown remarkable courage, tenacity, and even-handedness.
If the RNC had any sense they would nominate Liz Cheney for President.