Jan. 6, another date that will live in infamy | Editorial
By The Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial boards
Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (John Minchillo/AP)
On dates never to be forgotten — Dec. 7, 1941 and Sep. 11, 2001 — deadly attacks from abroad shattered the nation's naive confidence in its invulnerability. Friday is the second anniversary of another infamous day, which in one important sense was the worst of the three. It was not foreign enemies who assaulted the Capitol and Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, but American citizens incited to insurrection by an American president. More people arrested as a result of that day are from Florida than from any other state; here's an updated count of Central Floridians who have been charged in connection to that day's events (it's a work in progress right now.)
Our democracy survived, but with vulnerabilities again laid bare. The Constitution is only as strong as the good faith of those bound by duty, conscience and their oaths of office to protect and defend it. It is no sure thing that they always will.
Donald J. Trump, amorally faithless to his duty and his oath, never intended to yield his office peacefully, as 10 defeated incumbents had previously done.
Marshalling a mob to attack the Capitol and perhaps murder his vice president was the culmination of his assorted schemes to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden as his successor.
How well has the nation applied the lessons? How vulnerable are we still?
On the positive side is a good new electoral count law and voters across the nation who kept Trump's election deniers out of the Senate and governor's offices they sought. But in many states, the GOP's politically stacked districts left them accountable only to pro-Trump Republican primary voters. That made it safe for 139 House Republicans to vote against slates of Biden electors two years ago.
Sad to say, there are even more election deniers in the House now — 175, according to a Washington Post count. That's nearly 80% of the majority party's membership.
Of the 20 far-right Republicans who refused to vote for Kevin McCarthy to become speaker through vote after vote Tuesday and Wednesday, 18 are deniers, including Florida's Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds (a late-emerging McCarthy alternative) and newly elected Anna Paulina Luna. McCarthy himself is a denier, too.
Subversion by gerrymander
Political gerrymandering is subversion by nonviolent means, an offense against the voters that the Supreme Court cynically refuses to recognize as an offense against the Constitution.
That problem could become infinitely worse. In a critical case awaiting the court's decision, North Carolina Republicans argue that state legislatures are immune even to their own state constitutions and courts with respect to gerrymandering and national elections.
Of the 12 Republicans from Florida who voted to reject one or more of the Biden slates two years ago, the 11 who sought new terms all won them by landslide proportions in gerrymandered districts.
Five Republicans ran for the newly gerrymandered seat that Democrat Charlie Crist vacated to run for governor. The extremist, Luna, won the primary with 44.5%. On Nov. 8, she ran behind other Florida GOP winners with 53.1% of the vote, but still won.
Return power to the people
Owing much to the Jan. 6 investigative committee's work, Congress amended the 1887 Electoral Count Act to specify that the vice president's duty is merely to count states' ballots, not to question or discard any as Trump futilely demanded of Mike Pence.
The bipartisan law crafted by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., requires at least one-fifth of each house (87 representatives and 20 senators) to challenge any electors, rather than just one of each, forbids legislatures from changing the rules or appointing electors after their people have voted, and gives candidates the opportunity to sue state officials if they refuse to certify the votes.
On the other hand, of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his insurrection, only two were re-elected. Four didn't run and four lost their primaries, among them Peter Meijer in Michigan and Wyoming's Liz Cheney, the Jan. 6 committee's vice chair.
One bright spot for conscientious Republicans was Sen. Lisa Murkowski's re-election in Alaska thanks to a new system incorporating an open primary with ranked-choice voting. It protected her from the revenge Trump tried to take, which would have succeeded in a closed primary.
Florida would benefit enormously by bringing back the All Voters Vote open-primary initiative that fell just short of the necessary supermajority two years ago. It also needs to put more teeth in the Fair Districts amendment, which Gov. Ron DeSantis bullied lawmakers into cirumventing this year.
If democracy is worth defending, as heroic police officers and a steadfast majority of Congress thought it was two years ago, it is certainly worth the time and expense to save it from jaded politicians and gird the nation against another attack from an enemy within.
The Orlando Sentinel's Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. This was adapted from an editorial published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. That paper's Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and Anderson. Send letters to insight@OrlandoSentinel.com.