"I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone but your dishonor will remain." — U.S. Representative Liz Cheney
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Most Americans don’t remember the 1973 Watergate hearings because they weren’t alive yet or were too young to watch them. Only about one-third of the population is old enough to have done that.
For the same reason, few Americans can remember the JFK assassination, or diving under their desks in air raid drills, the polio epidemic, the Vietnam War, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, MLK’s assassination or Robert Kennedy’s killing either. The fact is they didn't experience any of those shared traumas or joys that so distinctly shaped the older generation’s collective consciousness.
Most Americans probably know that the Watergate hearings ultimately helped drive a President from office and changed the entire direction of the country. Still, they didn’t witness it like we did, and that makes a huge difference.
But for those many younger Americans, the January 6th hearings now offer them the opportunity for the kind of shared pivotal experience Baby Boomers had — the kind that helps forge a national consensus about what we all agree is right and wrong and what simply cannot be allowed in our bipartisan unity.
But I fear that unlike us, our children and grandchildren will not have that experience because they won’t watch the hearings like we did with Watergate.
For one thing, the media world has fractured dramatically — television networks no longer attract audiences who experience epiphanies in real time collectively. And social media does the opposite — it filters everyone into niches and tribes.
For another, the country is far more deeply divided politically than it was in 1973. Few minds are likely to be changed by anything Congress divulges over the coming weeks to bridge that gap.
That’s a pity. What anyone paying attention to the hearings will learn is the intimate details of how Trump and his allies plotted a coup that would have ended the American experiment with democracy and replaced it with an authoritarian regime.
That coup might have succeeded. More likely, responsible government officials and military leaders would have intervened, arresting Trump and installing the rightfully elected President Biden in his place.
But that would have fatally damaged U.S, democracy because we would never again be able to trust in a free and fair election outcome. And the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned about would finally have emerged from the shadows to hold power openly.
This might all seem academic except that extensive planning is being done by Trump’s allies and similar-minded elements in the Republican Party for an attempt to repeat Trump’s actions in 2024 should the vote not go their way.
Learning about what happened in 2020 is critical to preventing a similar fate in 2024, which would shatter our hopes for a shared bipartisan future. The January 6th hearings are a must-see for that reason.
TODAY’s LINKS: (6/11/22 — 44 stories from 25 sources)
The Biggest Takeaway From the First Night of the Jan. 6 Hearings Was About Mike Pence (Slate)
Dishonor, Trump’s and His Party’s, Is the Real January 6th Takeaway (New Yorker)
Liz Cheney: a Republican profile in courage after the Capitol attack (Financial Times)
The One Witness at the January 6 Hearing Who Matters Most — It’s you. (Atlantic)
‘Trump Was at the Center’: Jan. 6 Hearing Lays Out Case in Vivid Detail (NYT)
Willliam Barr, Donald Trump’s own attorney general told the then-president that his claims of a “stolen” election were “bullshit,” according to videotaped testimony revealed at the House Jan. 6 select committee’s first public hearing. [HuffPost]
Panel witness remembers 'carnage' and 'chaos' at the Capitol (NPR)
How To Host A Congressional Hearing That Actually, Like, Does Something (538)
Trump Is Depicted as a Would-Be Autocrat Seeking to Hang Onto Power at All Costs (NYT)
Trump takes to Truth Social to fire back at Jan. 6 committee (The Hill)
Jan. 6 panel lets Trump allies narrate the case against him (Politico)
Trump says January 6 'represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country' (Insider)
Jan. 6 hearing won't move MAGA crowd, but this hero's testimony will reach people — She's a cop, a woman who for years served the force at the U.S. Capitol, the 'proud' granddaughter of a Marine. She put a human face on the committee's first hearing. (USA Today)
‘Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy’ (MarketWatch)
Committee Lays Out Case Against Donald Trump (WSJ)
Furious Trump responds after violent video, Ivanka, Kushner and Barr used to skewer him (Independent)
The Jan. 6 hearing dominated the airwaves — except on Fox News (WP)
Tucker Carlson opened his Fox News show by making it clear that neither he nor Fox News would be broadcasting the House select committee hearing on the Capitol attacks. “This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,” Carlson said. [HuffPost]
Bennie Thompson says Jan. 6 was the 'culmination of an attempted coup' (NPR)
"I was slipping in people’s blood": Eyewitnesses testify at Jan. 6 hearing (Axios)
U.S. Capitol riot hearing shows Trump allies, daughter rejected fraud claims (Reuters)
How a documentary film-maker became the January 6 panel’s star witness (Guardian)
Betsy DeVos says she resigned after learning Pence wouldn't support invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot (Insider)
Here's what to expect for the Jan. 6 committee's future hearings (NBC)
Former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio and two other members of the far-right group pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy charges that were filed against them earlier this week in connection with their alleged roles in storming the Capitol. (Reuters)
Watchdog says Afghan Taliban detaining, torturing civilians (AP)
Outgunned Ukraine Needs More Weapons Fast as Russia Advances, Officials Say (WSJ)
Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fightingand under day and night shelling in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushes to control the bombed-out city, key to its objective of controlling eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
White supremacists are riling up thousands on social media (AP)
Poll: Support for controlling gun violence hits its highest point in a decade (NPR)
US will end Covid-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the country (CNN)
How did the pandemic begin? China must help find the answer. (Edit Bd/WP)
China calls theory that Covid originated in Chinese lab ‘politically motivated lie’ (Guardian)
Salvadoran women jailed for abortion warn US of total ban (AP)
Chesa Boudin is out in San Francisco, but his agenda is alive in California (Politico)
Inflation rises significantly in May, up to 8.6% year over year (ABC)
Inflation Hits New Four-Decade High on Broad Price Gains (WSJ)
A dearth of IPOs, a plunge in stock prices and slowing global economic growth are clouding the outlook for revenue at global investment banks after pandemic spending by governments and central banks fueled a blockbuster 2021. (Reuters)
Scientists release first analysis of rocks plucked from speeding asteroid (Phys.org)
Scientists found microplastics in fresh Antarctic snow for the first time. (WP)
Bruising bananas to create elaborate works of art (BBC)
Walgreens To Begin Keeping Most Valuable Employees Behind Glass (The Onion)
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