To the Editor:
When we started this series of letters to the editor our hope was to find “common ground” between Republicans and Democrats.
That was quite a while ago and it doesn’t feel like a victory when division and distrust seem like all we have found to agree on. It’s been said that two people, no matter what their differences, can usually bridge much of what lies between them if they have an honest, face to face discussion.
On a national scale, the events of January 6th have been one of those “don’t-see-it-the-same-way” points of contention, having been called an “insurrection” by the left and a “normal tourist visit” by the right.
Borrowing a term from family counseling, we are a “dysfunctional” nation and searching for a way to begin our healing is a Congressional study dedicated solely to the events of January 6th. They recognize the dimensions of their task.
To begin with, their legitimacy has predictably been challenged. Only two Republicans serve on the nine person panel, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.
As a consequence of them open-mindedly stepping forward both were censured by their party, which means neither any longer gets financial support from the GOP. Cheney was also stripped from her chairmanship of the House Republican Conference.
By forcing the committee to be almost all Democrats, the Republicans laid the preliminary groundwork for later discrediting what they knew the investigation would find. (Really, we all knew if we watched our TVs on the 6th, and the coverage was everywhere.)
As the first of the committee’s reports was about to air Thursday, Kevin McCarthy, using the “na-nana-naa-nah, I can’t hear you” debate technique, issued a statement telling people not to watch and pre-emptively dismissed the whole process as strictly “political.”
Meaning what?
That if something’s to be gained politically it can’t also be true?
Anticipating such methods, the committee is showing their evidence and providing their witnesses so we can judge for ourselves. They know that almost half their audience will be hostile so they have tried to separate themselves from the process and let the facts stand on their own merits.
The investigation has taken nearly a year and involved multiple government agencies and countless private witnesses and sources of video evidence. If you wanted to hide your secret backroom methods this isn’t the way to do it. We owe this committee our respect and thanks, and we owe ourselves the chance for rescue from partisan manipulation.
Let us begin to heal ourselves on the common ground of factuality. Watch and decide for yourself.
Gasconade County Democrat Committee (gasconadedems.org)
