🎙️GUEST COMMENTARY
The second part on the Insurrection of Washington looks at the Republicans’ attempts of gaslighting the event and sweeping the atrocities under the rug. This one needs no further explanation except to say that acquitting Trump of his involvement combined with the Republicans’ complicity triggered the beginning of the end of American democracy as we know it. This is courtesy of The Other 98%:
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Five years on and Republicans are hell-bent on turning January 6 from a violent insurrection into a nostalgic political football — while Democrats fight to keep the truth alive.
It’s been half a decade since a violent mob fueled by Donald Trump’s lies stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power — and what should have been our collective 9/11 moment of democratic defense is now the latest casualty in the GOP’s culture war.
Instead of memorializing that day, Trump and his allies have actively erased it from the record. On Day 1 of his return to the White House, Trump issued sweeping pardons for nearly every person charged for their role in the attack — effectively wiping out the largest federal criminal prosecution in U.S. history.
Gone are the consequences. Gone is accountability. And for too many in power, gone is the belief that January 6 was anything more than a spirited protest.
Meanwhile, the plaque Congress passed into law to honor the police who defended our democracy — the officers brutalized while doing their job — has been shoved into storage. A legislated memorial that should sit prominently on the Capitol’s West Front now collects dust because House Republicans refuse to install it, despite the law requiring it.
That absence isn’t accidental. It’s part of a broader GOP strategy to normalize the insurrection and reframe it as “legitimate political discourse” rather than an attempt to overthrow the Constitution.
This is not hyperbole — Republicans including current Speaker Mike Johnson have suggested January 6 should be subject to vague committee review rather than commemoration, and figures like Trump call those who attacked the Capitol “patriots.”
On the other side of the Capitol, House Democrats are fighting back — even if they’re the minority.
Today, they held an unofficial forum to document how Trump’s pardons and continuing election denialism threaten democratic norms. Leaders and members from the former January 6 committee, including Adam Schiff, Adam Kinzinger, and Elaine Luria, are speaking about ongoing threats to elections and free speech — a direct rebuttal to Republican whitewashing.
They’ve released reports and fact sheets that contrast the career trajectories of coup plotters with defenders of democracy.
But the fight isn’t just political — it’s moral. Officers who defended the Capitol are still wounded, psychologically and physically, and they see the revisionism as a direct insult to their sacrifice.
More than 140 officers were injured during the attack; many feel abandoned as pardoned rioters walk free and Republican leaders refuse to honor their bravery.
What’s happening isn’t just about memory — it’s about power.
Erase January 6, erase the warning signs of democratic fragility. Let future generations believe the Capitol riot was a sideshow, not an existential threat. That’s the GOP playbook right now, and Democrats are among the few consistently calling bullshit.
If we want a democracy that actually lasts, we can’t let Trump and his allies get away with this rewriting of history. We have to remember what happened, honor those who stood against it, and ensure that “never again” isn’t just a slogan — it’s a mandate.
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