Jan. 6, 2021, will be remembered as the day American democracy died. Now the revival is up to all of us.
The peaceful transfer of U.S. presidential power dating back to George Washington and John Adams more than two centuries ago ended with Donald Trump’s incitement of an insurrection Wednesday when hundreds of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This domestic terrorism was meant to prevent the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive victory in the Electoral College, and it left at least one person dead — a San Diego woman — and several people injured. The chaos cemented Trump’s reputation as the worst president of all time. But it will also cement the ruined reputations of shameless cheerleaders who put party over country for a president for whom lying came as naturally as breathing.