Narratives, Normalization and Other Nonsense

It's a GOP success and a Democratic failure if the January 6 insurrection and other threats to democracy don't help sway the results of the midterms

Trump supporters near the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Photo by Shay Horse/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

It was Antifa dressed up as Trump supporters. It was a day for Great Patriots, carrying confederate flags, hockey sticks, flagpoles and bear spray. It was a peaceful Wednesday, a tourist visit, despite the police suffering over 140 injuries and the rage-filled crowd hunting down Nancy Pelosi and chanting for the death of Mike Pence.

The conflict between the narrative of a peaceful event yet obviously filled with violence, of pro-Trump imposters who were also great patriots, never made sense for anyone who was paying attention and using their eyes. But making sense was never the point: The goal was to gloss over the truth of that deadly day when Donald Trump incited an insurrection to hold onto power despite losing the election. It followed months of his asserting that the election would be rigged and the outcome could not be trusted, then lying that Joe Biden stole the election from the real winner.

Despite the lack of evidence supporting this narrative, despite the visible evidence of violence and destruction, Trump and his enablers succeeded in convincing a majority of Republicans that the election was stolen and, not only was Jan. 6 no big deal, sometimes political violence is justified. We have to take back our country, right? If we don’t fight, we won’t have a country anymore.

As we head toward the final voting for the midterms on Nov. 8, I’m struck by the success of Republicans in convincing their supporters to ignore or minimize the Jan. 6 Capitol attack—and how that has laid the groundwork to take back the majority in the House and maybe the Senate. The most radicalized among them are not only determined to see their Dear Leader back in the White House reclaiming his rightful place, they are all in on the destruction of the democratic enterprise of elections decided by the will of the people.

With hundreds of election deniers on the ballot across the country—including powerful positions such as governor, senator, secretary of state and even attorney general—we will soon learn how strong the lie of election fraud is to bind its adherents and expand their power, truth be damned. The presence in Arizona this weekend of armed individuals in tactical gear and others photographing voters dropping off mail-in ballots is one worrying answer. So is Arizona extremist and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s reaction to the voter intimidation: “It just shows you how concerned people are…about the integrity of our election.”

While it remains hard to fully accept that so many millions of Americans are just fine with abandoning the democratic project and heading toward an increasingly bitter and broken future, let’s not lose sight of how the failures of leadership and education got us here. It was possible to strengthen the understanding of and belief in democracy as the principle and path to a better, more unified, more forward-looking and more equal country. This declining commitment has been building long before Donald Trump entered the political arena and hastened the downward spiral.

And even as the autocratic, anti-democratic narrative has accelerated and intensified, Democrats have failed to hammer home how dangerous a threat Jan. 6 was for America. Yes, the House Select Committee has built a remarkable case, but Politico reports that the insurrection has barely registered as a blip in House races, appearing as an issue in less than two percent of House ads run by Democrats. And more, a new New York Times/Siena College poll found that 71 percent of Trump voters see Democrats as a major threat to democracy, while only 52 percent of Biden voters see Republicans the same way.

False equivalencies aside, we are facing the consequences of hyper-partisanship, politicization of nearly every area of public life, lack of accountability at the highest levels for Jan. 6, rejection of science and expertise—and the determination to stick to one’s own tribe. That need to stick together and condemn the other side was most stunningly displayed at the height of the pandemic, when countless Americans swallowed the misinformation and clung to the notion that the deadly virus was a hoax and the life-saving vaccine could not be trusted, even after some of these deniers ended up in hospitals and morgues. The daily repetition of lies by the occupant of the White House led people to normalize or deny the grim reality, as if all the scientific data and death counts were mere fiction. So much for the shared narrative that could have made the pandemic a moment to come together.

Make no mistake: I still believe that strong turnout can lead to the Democrats holding onto the Senate and even expanding their majority. But as long as the country lacks proper civic education and too many elected Democrats remain reluctant to confront the growing extremism, democracy as a system will continue to lose sway.

That portends the continuing rise of autocrats, demagogues and despots—strongman types dishing out easy answers and serving up scapegoats for a hungry, aggrieved public lured by the cruel gruel and ready to swallow it. But for all of us who believe this need not be our fate, we must energetically advocate for narratives based in fact, that support education and science, that exalt justice and laws, and that recognize and advocate for the promise of democracy.

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