The Wrong Side Won: A Reflection of the Insurrection of January 6th
by R. Anthony Arnold
January 2022
In many ways, it feels like the battle that began this time last year is not only over, but that the wrong side won. I know that the hearings are ongoing. And I know that Attorney General Garland has said that nobody, no matter how high up, will be spared from suffering the consequences of their actions. Those things are good, and I hope that he’s true to his word.
But to me, the punishment isn’t the point. Because whatever Democrats decide to do, or not do, it’s clear that they’ll be doing it on their own. Which is why I said the battle is over, and the wrong side won.
If only one party is dedicated to the preservation and protection of our democratic norms, then you don’t have a functioning government. You have a decaying, stinking, rotten husk of a system.
Whatever Republican leaders had to say in the immediate aftermath of the riot, most of them have reversed course now.
On the evening of January 6th, one year ago, Senator Lindsey Graham said “Trump and I have had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way. Oh my God, I hate it…All I can say is: Count me out. Enough is enough.”
By the end of the next month, he was back in bed with the former President, having decided that the Faustian bargain was a good deal, after all. Far from being alone in this, his abrupt turn around represents the norm. Most Republican officials, at least publicly, are remarkably comfortable falling in line.
Like I said, the wrong side won.
The goal of the rioters was unfocused. Pure rage often is. While some of their ringleaders may have had more concrete goals, I think most people in attendance just got wrapped up in following the mob, which obviously shouldn’t shield them from consequences.
But the rioters weren’t the real danger. They never were. The threat came from President Trump, his enablers, his allies, and the media ecosystem that spread his words and actions as gospel. Together, they launched a coordinated attack on the system, one with the primary goal of illegally keeping him in power. While they failed on that count, that wasn’t their only objective.
The secondary goal was to destroy the faith that makes a democratic government possible. An attack of that kind cannot succeed in a country where its leaders, and the people, believe in the system. It can only work in an environment so toxic, broken, and cynical that even terrible things are only met with a collective shoulder shrug. You have to break people’s spirits.
And we’re broken.
The events of last year haven't produced a strong reaction among the public. They’ve been processed with the same weary knowingness that marks much of American life. Instead of reacting with anger, or outrage, or a fury motivated by true patriotism, the public has responded by saying, “Yes, it happened, and it was expected. And there’s not much purpose in getting mad at expected things, now is there?”
It goes without saying that this is no way to defend a democracy on the ropes. In the days after the riot, I had some hope that the country would rediscover its revolutionary spark. That we would cease the sighs, and the endless infighting. That we would realize that there are only two sides that truly matter right now. Those of us who believe in protecting our democracy, and those of us who don’t.
We didn’t. Maybe the big picture is just too big for us to see; or maybe we’re too jaded to take a leap of faith on another person. Whatever the reason, we didn’t join together to face the danger. We stayed apart; which is why the wrong side won.
The only proper response to a direct threat aimed at the heart of our nation is to fight it, together. To fight it joined at the hip. Not out of kindness, but necessity. The people who thought up, planned, and coordinated the attack were counting on us not having a strong response. So far, they’re right.